Daily Archive

by Alyse Ochniak, posted by Deb Shaw

Jim Folsom lecturing during the “Weird, Wild & Wonderful Symposium.” Photo by Clara Josephs, © 2015, all rights reserved.

More looking forward to the next New York Botanical Garden Triennial, “Out of the Woods”:

Jim Folsom, Marge and Sherm Telleen Director of the Botanical Gardens, will be teaching two workshops about the structure of trees at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, on:
October 24, 2015 (limit 30 students) in the Brody Teaching Lab, from 8:30 am – 12:00 pm, and
January 17, 2016 (limit 20 students) in the Engemann Applied Tech Lab, from 8:30 am – 12:00 pm

Cost is $10.00 each session, payable at the workshop. Reservations are required, however; please RSVP to Alyse Ochniak. Reservations are first come, first served.

Come to one or both! Each session will be a 3-hour demonstration/workshop. Students will use dissection and compound microscopes to examine tree architecture, growth patterns, and structural characteristics using fresh and prepared material (provided by the Gardens). Discussion will include characteristics and terminology used to describe trees, and most useful in identification. Instruction will give particular attention to natural growth patterns and specific details of tree morphology and anatomy that would impact veracity of depiction.

Workshops only require pencil/pen and sketchbooks for taking notes, although artists are welcome to bring whatever materials they would like to use. Attendees are welcome to stay and draw in the Gardens after the class.

For more information about the New York Botanical Garden Triennial “Out of the Woods, Celebrating Trees in Public Places” visit the ASBA website.

The Huntington is located at: 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, California, 91108.

About the instructor:
Jim Folsom, PhD., rides the demographic peak of baby boomers, having been born in southeastern Alabama in 1950. His lifelong love of plants is reflected in a BS in Botany from Auburn University, an MA in Biology from Vanderbilt University, and a PhD in research botany from The University of Texas at Austin. Though his research has centered on the orchid family, with much of the research time spent in Tropical America (including a year in Colombia on a Fulbright Pre-Doctoral Fellowship), Jim’s botanical interests are wide-ranging. As Curator of the Botanical Gardens at The Huntington in San Marino, CA, he dedicates much of his effort to educational programs that increase public interest and understanding of the science, culture, and history of plants and gardens. He lives at The Huntington with his wife, Debra (also a botanist) and children Molly and Jimmy. Jim was recognized as a Friend of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America in 1996, a Member-at-Large of the Garden Club of America in 1998, and presented a Professional Citation by the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta in 1999. The Garden Club of America awarded him their Medal of Honor in 2007.