Johannah’s latest mosaic series features endangered flowering plants native to our home state of Virginia as well as other parts of the eastern United States.

Like the Nature series from last year, the Endangered Flowers series was inspired by the beauty of the natural world around us. This time, I wanted to speak more openly to the destruction and chaos we humans have inflicted on the world. And I wanted to stick close to home, explore my own backyard so to speak.

Mosaic art depicting endangered flowers of Virginia

As I researched native Virginia flowers, the same primary environmental threat kept popping up: wetlands habitat loss. The four flowers I chose to represent are (L to R in photo) swamp pink, pitcher plant, American chaffseed, and Virginia sneezeweed. Each of these plants lives and grows in wetlands such as sandy coastal or boggy areas. There were many other plants to chose from, and most of them thrive in similar ecosystems.

As our built environment spreads ever outward and we continue to pave more of the earth’s surface, we both destroy natural wetlands and create ever-worsening flooding issues. Further, the retention ponds we create to replace wetlands are no true substitute for the plants and animals that live in those wetlands. We may have built ourselves a place to store the water we’ve displaced, but in the process we’ve destroyed an important part of the ecosystem. Even the current Environmental Protection Agency agrees that wetlands, like those other crucial but fragile systems, rainforests and coral reefs, are vital to life on earth due in great part to their tremendous biodiversity.

Like all our mosaics, the Endangered Flowers series is created with 100% reclaimed or environmentally sustainable and stable materials. A portion of the proceeds of the sale of this series will be donated to the Flora of Virginia Project. Take a look below at a few work in progress shots as well as photos of the flowers themselves that inspired this series!