For Everything Vegetal, Whealon and Rêve have gathered recent and past pieces that depict plants and gardens. You’ll see their individual and collaborative work as we celebrate the opening of their mural, In a Planted Place (shown above during recent construction).

 

Whealon Costello is a trans artist and poet. She studied painting, writing, and critical social inquiry at North Seattle College and Hampshire College where she earned a BA. She likes to find a balance between representational portraiture and abstracts with a strong focus on color schemes. She loves working in collaboration with other artists. She can be found @wheaouthere on Instagram.

 

Rêve Hansen is a Seattle-based artist raised in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a BA in Art and BS in Environmental Science and Resource Management from the University of Washington. Her work blends traditional portraiture and figure painting with experimental techniques, exploration with textural elements of found materials and the physicality of paint. She can be found @reve_aart on Instagram.

The exhibit is open during library hours. Join us for an opening reception Saturday, January 11 from 12 to 2 pm.

Dickinson showed similar enthusiasm for the plants she wrote about. Her work also shows how carefully she examined and described those plants.

In alternating chapters, Bergland has put together parallel biographies. She combines her argument that Darwin included emotional response and Dickinson a scientific one with a history of the changing ideas about the relationship between the sciences and arts in the nineteenth century. In 1780 science and art were all part of one “philosophy.” By 1880 they were separate and at odds with each other.

It is a pleasure to enter into the challenges and relationships of these two towering figures. Regret that the book must come to an end is rare enough for fiction; for this reader, it was a first for nonfiction. The book is easy to read — not always true for works built around intellectual history — and full of memorable details.

Darwin, who was enthralled by geology, plants, and animals from childhood, could not find much formal training in science. He hated school, and he suffered from a classical English education which excluded nearly all science. Dickinson, on the other hand, happened to live in a short period of time in America when science was considered essential to girls’ education, and she loved her classes at her Amherst school and her year at Mount Holyoke. She had more formal training in science than he did. He learned it all on his own.

During the nineteenth century, science and art were separating. The term “scientist” was first used in the 1830s, replacing “men of science,” since women were excluded. No one, male or female, could earn a living as a scientist. It’s worth noting that both Darwin and Dickinson came from wealthy families, or in Dickinson’s case, wealthy enough, so neither of them needed to work for a salary. Darwin eventually earned handsomely from his books. Dickinson published only a few poems, for no pay.

Sometimes Bergland’s efforts to show parallels in these two lives seem a bit stretched. Still, she is convincing about the connections between their two worlds, and she brings her two subjects very much to life in a time of exciting change.

Virtual Story Time is going strong in 2025, featuring books and activities celebrating plants and nature.

In January, we look at cycles in nature. One Day This Tree Will Fall by Leslie Barnard Booth and Stephanie Fizer Coleman explores the long lifecycle of Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas fir), showing how it continues to support life even long after the tree has died. In April Pulley Sayre's Raindrops Roll, photographs show natural beauty as reflected in raindrops. Finally, the kids in Water is Water by Miranda Paul and Jason Chin take a year-long look at the water cycle to appreciate how water makes outdoor fun (and life itself) possible.

In February, we'll continue to look closely and see more with Percy's Museum by Sara O'Leary and Carmen Mok, a story about moving to a new home and spending more time outdoors. In Linh's Rooftop Garden by JaNay Brown-Wood and Samara Hardy, Linh uses all five senses and descriptive clues to find blueberries in a garden full of plants. In Apple and Magnolia by Laura Gehl and Patrica Metola, the young protagonist watches two trees and learns that they are helping one another. Kids and families can stop by the Miller Library in January or February to pick up their very own nature journal.

During the month of March, we'll offer a cherry blossom collage activity to our young library visitors and post videos of me reading Tisha and the Blossoms by Wendy Meddour and Daniel Egnéus, Nest by Jorey Hurley, and When the Sakura Bloom by Narisa Togo. Each of these books celebrates the fleeting yet powerful joy of early spring blossoms.

Looking ahead, I'm excitedly preparing to host in-person story time for Center for Urban Horticulture summer day camp groups in June and July.