tobacco brown: What gardening taught me about life
特伯蔻·布朗: 园艺教会我生活的道理
TED Resident tobacco brown is a social artist working at the public intersection of environmental art and restorative justice. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
leftover patches of linoleum
my mother was having removed.
when the garden caught my attention.
of embroidered roses
a sense of joy and adventure.
a feeling to go forward
started at that exact moment.
I ran so fast through the house,
and my grey plaid wool hat
on a fresh carpet of grass.
and flipped three more cartwheels
of bittersweet lemonade
with sprigs of mint
and textures of her garden.
have healed all the way from her halo
anywhere in the world
throughout the world,
parks and courtyards,
in blighted lots off the street.
at Stilwerk Design Center,
hydrangea and lemon balm
to all six floors.
Frederick Douglass High School
fed an entire community
during the Great Depression.
at Court Square Park --
of deliciously fragrant floribunda
that planting and growing a garden
begins in the spring,
the dead leaves,
and the proper nutrients
on the surface.
beautiful blooms in life
of living a life of grace.
that another tree is sick,
of their nutrients to that tree
about what will happen to them
to other trees that need it the most.
we are all connected by our roots
that we can honestly grow.
in the garden of hardship.
into a chrysalis,
the confines of the cocoon,
can't strengthen its wings.
without ever taking flight.
human connectivity into the garden.
for this transformation.
waiting to be born.
into our waking lives.
all you've been given.
living deep inside of you.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
tobacco brown - Social artistTED Resident tobacco brown is a social artist working at the public intersection of environmental art and restorative justice.
Why you should listen
tobacco brown paints the landscape with the authentic medium of flora and fauna. She initiates living art installations from nature's products and materials with the intention of creating a collective consciousness that results in liberated and healthy communities, focusing on art as a tool for blight remediation and therapeutic healing.
brown has created social environmental art sculptures and installations for public art, permaculture for resilient community projects and blight remediation that results in the restorative healing from socio-political inequalities. She received her BFA in 1978 at Memphis State University in communications design. She continued to study at School of Visual Arts, when selected by portfolio to study with Milton Glaser. During those SVA years, she also studied advertising design at DDB+O, Young and Rubicam and Mary Wells in invitational classes at professionals home in New York City.
brown currently travels between New York City, nature sites, art residencies and communities that seek and promote healing and continuity. She believes that nature principles when amplified can impact the behavior of global cultures.
tobacco brown | Speaker | TED.com