A Journey Through Bartram’s Garden

A Journey Through Bartram’s Garden is comprised of twenty panels that span both sides of the Lindberg Blvd Bridge at the entrance to Bartram’s Garden. The mural was painted in the studio and at Art Education sites Mastery Charter School Shoemaker Campus and the Southwest Community Enrichment Center.

Artists Constance Mensh and Thomas Walton created lesson plans based on their own research and visits to Bartram’s Garden. The artists worked with the students in the garden and with collected specimens to explore the concepts and techniques of botanical illustration. Students also studied illustrations made by William Bartram and created their own figurative and interpretive versions. These results were then transformed into a scroll-like landscape to fit the architecture of the bridge. Once transferred to the parachute cloth, the designs were painted using thin washes of colors and gel medium. Each was finished using a thin brush with black paint to draw on top of the image.

The mural attempts to encompass a movement toward escape and peace with natural and flowing subject matter combined with colorful, yet calming hues evolving throughout the scene. This visual “stroll” is further deepened into a thorough experience by the whimsical nature of the illustrations, the students’ and the artists’ interpretations of those of William Bartram. Bartram’s work itself is a gleeful, at times naïve but always-meticulous examination of specimens he collected along his many explorations and days spent in his garden. The mural transforms the bridge into both a landmark to the Garden’s entrance and a subtle, guiding path towards the innermost realms and delights of the grounds.