Illustrative Poems at Field & Fork Farm
A series of original illustrations inspired by poems installed at Field & Fork Farm and Gardens, created to extend the experience of ecological storytelling through visual interpretation. Please see my thesis document in my About page to read research further and how these turned into a spatial experience.
This project responds to Poetry in the Gardens, a public installation developed by students in a Spring 2025 ecopoetry course in collaboration with Imagining Climate Change and IFAS/CALS Field & Fork Farm. The installation placed selected poems throughout the working farm, inviting visitors to encounter literature alongside crops, soil, and seasonal change.
Drawing from my ongoing thesis collaboration with the farm, I selected several poems that resonated deeply and translated them into illustrated narratives. Each illustration emerges from an emotional resonance with a chosen poem, translating its imagery and atmosphere into a visual narrative. Through this process, the installation expands beyond text, inviting alternative ways of engaging with the farm’s stories.
Through illustration, the project continues my exploration of attentive noticing and place-based storytelling, using visual interpretation as a means of deepening reflection and extending the poetic experience into another medium.
Thereafter, I learned that a Spring Festival was taking place, and I took this opportunity to conduct one final participatory experience to engage visitors in a more embodied encounter with the poems. The activity invited participants to move through the farm using a passport-style guide, visiting each poem’s location and reflecting on its illustration, text, and surrounding environment. More about this project following this link.
Inspirations include the text–image dialogue in Here’s Motion Everywhere, a 1970 children’s poetry collection illustrated by Simms Taback, where poetry and illustration function as interwoven narrative elements. The work is further informed by the botanical expressiveness of Victoria Lacan and the immersive floral environments created by Alexandre Benjamin Navet, whose large-scale, color-saturated installations transform urban space into illustrated landscapes.
Acknowledgement: This project was developed under the guidance of Eury Kim, my Thesis Chair and professor at the University of Florida.
Seasonal interconnections · Spatial Experience · Interdependence · Research
Inspiration: Springburst, from There’s Motion Everywhere, illustrated by Simms Taback. Source: Peculiar Manicule.
Finding Meaning — Which Poems Can Work for This Project?
Mood Board
Artists & Designers: Franki Domino, Stephanie Specht, Marusya Yuzhakova, Marine Buffard, Shiyao Wang, Jekaterina Budryte & Giacomo Bagnar.
Sketches
How can they look cohesive and distinctive? How do the theme of nature stays constant but also reflect the space of the farm? What natural elements can I use more metaphorically and which ones can be more literal?
Final Illustrations and Type Design
