Hi there, I’m Latifat
muslim,
botanical printmaker,
watercolor explorer,
plant lover,
scientist and educator.
For as long as I can recall, I have been in awe of plants –
I am a Muslim-woman. A distinctiveness visually apparent. A spirited reality that illuminates and is hyphenated to all my other identities: Muslim-woman-artist, Muslim-woman-physician, Muslim-woman-sister, daughter, plant-enthusiast, Nigerian-American…
As a Muslim-woman, my faith is imbedded into my creativity. The intention behind my work is to cultivate an ever-deepening admiration for the wonder that is the botanical world.
Using the centuries-old mono-printmaking technique called Nature Printing, my art involves hand-pressing inked fresh plants onto paper to create unique botanical portraits. Once used by botanist and physicians to document interesting and useful plants for study, nature-printing showcases the extraordinary in “ordinary” leaves and flowers. It allows for the examination of botanical complexity as the inked plants share their oft overlooked fingerprinted secrets of beauty, diversity, detail, texture, and form.
Prior to learning about botanical nature printing, I was somewhat “plant blind.” “Plant blindness” is a cognitive bias of diverse psychological, cultural and geopolitical origins. It’s an unsettling urban worldview where plants are simply…ornamentation, appealing to the eye, but obscured from everyday attention and unlikely to be deeply contemplated. This despite plants being central to the well-being of every planetary affair in every imaginable way. Disturbing because what is not acknowledge, identified, and appreciated, we don’t invest in, maintain, or preserve.
Nature printing has completely transformed and continues to refine my relationship with plants. It is an opportunity for deep observation and contemplation. The awe of venation focuses my attention. The tangible process of creating prints evokes what had been dormant wonder, a life-changing unification of my intellectual curiosity, creativity, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. My artwork is a form a botanical advocacy, and I hope my art inspires others to look at the plants around them a little more deeply and wonder.
To transform their own unwittingly social and culturally challenged botanical paradigms.
To not just look, but see.
“The seven heavens, the earth, and all in them glorify Him. There is not a single thing that does not glorify His praises—but you ˹simply˺ cannot comprehend their glorification. He is indeed Most Forbearing, All-Forgiving.”
-Al-Quran Al-Kareem (17:44)
