Makaila Banka
Pennsylvania Endangered Wildflowers
Recently, nature has been speaking to me loudly. While taking nature walks, I began thinking about the plant species in our own backyards that could be threatened, endangered or close to extinction. I want to bring awareness to those plant species that are becoming extinct in Pennsylvania. These plants are more than just beautiful, they are helpful to our environment by bringing in more native pollinator species, which results in far fewer of them becoming extinct. These digital illustrations and patterns will not only show my subjects in their natural environment, but they will bring awareness to where we can find and protect the subjects' habitats. My illustrations have a very loose hand painterly and drawn technique that feels the most like nature, while still looking clean and digitally made. Seeing these plants through illustrations will help people to recognize them on their own with hopes of helping preserve them. The elements in the pattern used are taken from the illustrations made but also have some other drawn elements that relate specifically to each flower. The purpose of creating patterns is to keep spreading the awareness of these flowers for years to come, for patterns can be used for many visual aspects.
