​A Year of Plant Colors at the Growing Center: Anthotypes Poster Project

In 2024, as part of our 30th Anniversary celebrations, the Friends of the Community Growing Center partnered with Somerville artist and Massachusetts master gardener Mary Kocol on a special collaborative project. From April to October, Ms. Kocol visited the Growing Center every few weeks to capture each season's flowers to make anthotypes, as seen in the poster on the right. An Anthotype ("flower print") is an ephemeral image created through an eco-friendly photo-based process involving plant emulsion, using the sun to make exposures in order to extract natural color from flowers and plants, a process discovered during the Victorian era by the same inventor of the Cyanotype (sunprint) process.

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The finished product of Ms. Kocol's months-long endeavor is a gorgeous, frame-worthy poster featuring anthotypes of all 48 flowers and natural extracts she was able to produce - including one from the Somerville Maple Syrup Project!

Through an artist fellowship from the Somerville Arts Council, Ms. Kocol offered a free public workshop at the Growing Center in May, 2024. Aimed at all ages and experience levels, this workshop took participants all through the process of making anthotypes.