Thursday February 18 - Morrison Center

Quality and Purity - Education and Inspiration

Curtis Jones, President, Botanical interests, Inc.

Fifteen years ago, Curtis Jones and Judy Seaborn came up with an idea for a seed packet. After 15 years of almost unbelievably difficult situations, Botanical interests now ships over 5 million seed packets to over 2500 independent garden centers and health food grocery stores nationally.

Inspired by a high school biology teacher, Curtis became interested in Horticulture and received his BS in plant Science and his MS in Agronomy. After years of horticultural sales, Curtis and the love of his life, Judy, started Botanical Interests, Inc., a seed packet company.

Thursday, January 28 - Morrison Center

Using Edible Wild Plants

by Brian Elliott, Elliott Environmental Consulting, LLC

"Using Wild Edible Plants" will highlight the issues that may arise from incorporating wild foods into our daily diet. These issues will be discussed using examples from the edible and toxic flora of western North America, giving insight on the fine points of wild harvest and the associated risks of toxicity.

Brian Elliott has had a life-long interest in plants and ethnobotany. He has worked as a landscaper, nurseryman, native seed collector, botanist for the Forest Service, and is currently self-employed botanical consultant focusing on rare plant conservation in the western United States. In 2009, he published his first book, the Handbook of Edible and Poisonous Plants of Western North America.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Each person is a nation unto himself, and what he does with that nation is up to him - Renaldo Kuhler

Rocaterrania - The Secret World of Renaldo Kuhler

A feature Lenght Documentary by Brett Ingram

Renaldo Kuhler is a scientific illustrator with a lifelong project: his own nation, Roccaterania. With the same detail he uses to record the scale patterns of snakes or the curves of microscopic bones, he has designed an alphabet, fashion, architecture, movie industry, and all the other possible details of his imaginary country.

Rocaterrania is a feature-length documentary journey into the secret world of 76-year-old Kuhler, a visionary artist who invented an imaginary country to survive his disaffected youth, and illustrated the nation’s history for six decades.

“Fantasy is like fruit and dessert, and reality is like meat and potatoes and green beans” -Kuhler

Formerly a journalist, physics teacher and electrical engineer on the Space Shuttle Main Engine Program, Brett Ingram has been making films since 1990. His short documentaries and animated films have screened at more than 150 festivals, winning 30 awards collectively.

Denver Botanic Gardens – Morrison Center

6:30 – 8 p.m.

Thursday, November 5, 2009 - Morrison Center

The Nature of Fibonacci Numbers
By Dick Yeatts, PhD, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO

The sequence of numbers 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,..., wherein each number is the sum of the preceding two, is credited to Leonardo of Pisa (a.k.a. Fibonacci). The remarkable properties of these numbers and their progeny, the "golden" ratios, find application in nearly every field of human endeavor including art, music, economics, and geometry. In the life sciences, the numbers relate to such diverse subjects as human anatomy, snail shells, and the architecture of plants.

F. R. (Dick) Yeatts is a Professor Emeritus in Physics at the Colorado School of Mines. While employed, his research was mostly in geophysics. Since retiring, his interest is in the mathematics and physics of plants.

October 22, 2009, GATES HALL

An Evolutionary Play in the Ecological Theatre:
Influences of Landscape and Climate Change on the Clan of the Parry primrose

By Tass Kelso, PhD, Colorado Collage, Colorado Springs, CO

The Parry primrose clan encompasses a group of species endemic to western North America from Colorado to Idaho and south into the Sierra Madre of Mexico. This talk will examine the diverse genetic and ecological perspectives we now have on the group, and how these support models of speciation on different time and geographic scales. Paleoecological, landscape and climate data show changes in the Rocky Mountain/Great Basin region since the Cretaceous that probably enhanced speciation through separation of populations on increasingly isolated alpine habitats. However, regional climatic and vegetation models for the future indicate that concerns about habitat loss, diminishing populations, and poor reproduction are warranted for many members of the clan.

Tass Kelso is a professor of biology at Colorado College, where she has been teaching botany since 1987. Her research specialties are the evolution, diversity and biogeography of the western flora, especially the Primulaceae.

Thursday, October 22, 2009
Denver Botanic Gardens – Gates Hall
6:30 – 8 p.m.

October 1st, 2009, Morrison Center

A Journey to South Park, Colorado
By Jan Boyd Haring, ASBA Grant Recipient

In 2007 Jan Boyd Haring received a grant from the American Society of Botanical Artists to record roadside wildflowers of the South Park Basin, and create a brochure free to the traveling public. This challenge piqued an on going fascination with this wonderful region in central Colorado. Hang on to your hats and toss your troubles aside, as you take an amazing journey across all corners of South Park to learn about the wildflowers, animals, old railroads, and history. Hear about trials and victories of completing an artist’s grant. Guess why these pictured railroad workers look so cheerful in the winter of 1910!

Jan Boyd Haring is a life long artist devoted to nature. Now retired from a twenty-three year career in the Information Technology industry, she has fulfilled her goal to be an artist full time.Jan received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Northern Arizona, and has attended classes at the School of the Art Institute at Chicago. She graduated from the Denver Botanic Gardens Botanical Art and Illustration Certificate Program in 2006. She is currently creating botanical illustrations primarily in watercolor and colored pencil. Her work is in numerous private collections and has been the recipient of several awards in juried shows.

Café Botanique is a part of the Botanical Art and Illustration Program and is open to everybody. The 30-40 minute talk starts at 6:30 p.m. and is followed by a discussion. Café Botanique meets every first and third Thursday of the month, each time with a different topic relating to Denver Botanic Gardens exhibits and Botanical Illustration classes. There is no admission fee and pre-registration is not required. BYOS.
This lecture offers one elective credit hour in the BI-program.

Thursday, October 1, 2009
Denver Botanic Gardens – Morrison Center
6:30 – 8 p.m.

Thursday, September 17- Morrison Center

(http://www.flickr.com/people/11853009@N07 Dan Brady)

What Every Artist Needs to Know About Paints and Colors
By David Pyle, VP/Division Publisher for Art, Jewelry and Yarn Interweave

How important are light-fastness? What determines the long-term stability of colors and how can you maximize their permanence? How do you keep mixed colors brilliant and true? What's our current understanding regaring the safe use of common art materials? Understanding the tools can help you unlock your expressive process in remarkable ways. This session includes making pigment from bugs (really!) and demonstrations from atop tables and chairs.

David Pyle is the author of What Every Artist Needs to Know About Paints and Colors (Krause, 2000), as well as more than 100 published articles about art materials and techniques. A painter, he has served as the director of technical education for a major art materials manufacturer. He now is publisher for the American Artist group, which includes American Artist, Drawing, Watercolor and Workshop magazines.

Thursday, September 17, 2009
Denver Botanic Gardens – Morrison Center
6:30 – 8 p.m.