Wild Urban Medicine

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“Most of us have probably felt like a weed at some point in our lives, like we are unwanted and disposable. Celebrating the beauty and magic of such creatures can help us to rejoice in our own uniqueness and begin the path of healing through self-appreciation, perseverance, and elevated physical wellness. This can also help us to embrace the value of biodiversity within our own species and in all Earthly creatures and thus begin the process of reconnecting to each other and to the land where we live, work, and play”

For this project, the imagery is about connecting The Loop community buildings (previously known as Lamar Station Apartments in Lakewood, Colorado) together through bright and bold geometry juxtaposed with the organic forms of wild, edible and medicinal “weeds” that can be found growing all around this urban and suburban land, happily sprouting up in the cracks of hardscapes and thriving in our modern toxic environment. It is a celebration of our mother Earth and her unconditional love for us, despite our shortcomings in the way we treat her. We have been taught that these plants must be poisoned or yanked and discarded, but they are truly adaptive survivors in the face of great adversity – tiny care packages with a message of love and healing from our Mother.

Each building in The Loop community honors one wild urban “weed,” painted at different phases in its lifecycle and with an emphasis on its unique architecture so as to be identifiable in real life. Each building also has a plaque that describes the medicinal benefits of the plants. (Click below to see the medicinal benefits of all the “weeds” depicted in these murals.)

Medicinal Benefits of "Weeds"

Gumweed

Mallow

Burdock

Milk Thistle

Plantain

Shepard’s Purse

Showy Milkweed

Puncture Vine

Cleavers

Dandelion

The macro scale of the plants in the murals puts humans in the perspective of the pollinator. Imagine if your whole purpose in life was to fly around each day to discover and explore beautiful flowerscapes from which to suckle sweet nectar, all the while, helping the plants propagate the next generation. Now imagine if your beautiful blossoms and source of nourishment suddenly became deadly chemical baths or just disappeared entirely due to human’s peculiar preference for outdoor carpets of resource-intensive, non-native grass that is not allowed to grow tall enough to flower! What if instead, we filled our landscapes with a biodiversity of edible and medicinal plants that are adapted to our climate, have no need for extra inputs nor chemicals, and that provide free food and medicine for us as well as the other creatures who share our land and ecosystem???

*The imagery and information in this mural garden are not intended as medical advice, but simply an introduction to identifying local plants and to encourage individual research into wild herbal remedies and natural ways of increasing overall wellness. If you come across a wild plant you suspect might be medicinal, please take the time to honor the gifts it has to offer by researching the best way to harvest, process and utilize it for wellness. Consult a local, licensed herbalist as well as your doctor about incorporating it into your lifestyle. Also, please take precautions that it is not a poisonous look-alike and, especially if in an urban environment, be aware that it is likely tainted with chemicals or other urban pollution and may not be safe for consumption or medicinal use.

**Some of the plants celebrated in the murals are considered “noxious weeds” and are technically illegal to cultivate and propagate. Please do your research.