What a Magazine Cover!

Environmental & Science Education

Art and Environment

Nature

Edward Hessler

Orion Magazine, a journal devoted to "people and nature," features a common dandelion (Taraxacum spp.) as its summer cover illustration. The ordinary made extraordinary.

The illustration glows. What is it?  An x-ray perhaps? Or a photographic negative? An old photographic technique or one modified? Or...? It is, it turns out, a painting done in 14-karat gold on black background by artist Margot Glass.

Orion's Nicholas Triolo interviews her and we learn more about what is behind the cover which is included at the top of the interview. Glass talks about going slow, finding "accidental beauty," accessibility and inclusion for all to the natural world, and on finding the preciousness in something others might miss. I loved this quote: "The dandelion drawings are painstaking and slow, and I sometimes find myself holding my breath when putting lines down almost as if I'm not trying to blow the seeds off the flower head!"

Triolo includes a link to Glass's website which I reproduce here where you can see more of her work.