Marsha Boston Art

For the last 20 years or so, Marsha Boston’s work has centered on the concepts and myths that have defined our relationship to nature. She has been researching on the application of recombinant DNA technology to food crops, and in the process she discovered her delight and fascination with botany. Her work evolved out of her concern with the accelerated speed of human dominion over nature, the uncertain realities of genetic engineering, and her reverence for the design of plants which she considered as miraculous. Unfortunately, while she was working with acrylics on a series titled Trangenic Garden, she developed a serious allergy to the ammonia and formaldehyde in the paint. Marsha switched to ink and watercolor to complete her work of studying California’s indigenous medicinal plants. Marsha was moved by the power and beauty of the plants, and she began to study how these plants were made central to the cultures of the indigenous societies. The shamanic healers believed that for an individual to survive seriously challenging situations, part of their soul had to leave them and take refuge in another world in order to assist in overall survival. It is essential for a shaman to achieve inner balance in order to be an effective healer and to journey into the other worlds. Central to Marsha’s in shamanic practices and medicinal plants is this element of balance. For her, art parallels her desire for a human future that’s in harmony with the natural world. This is because she believes art promotes states of equilibrium in which influences that compete achieve a state of dynamic balance. Currently, framed Marsha Boston art are bought in large numbers especially by botanists.