More information, materials, and resources for the Common Natives of Indiana project can be found on my website at http://www.shawnpsullivan.com/nativeindiana

I love to garden, and recently decided to look for books to introduce my daughters to gardening and the importance of native plants to our ecosystem. However, I couldn’t find any I liked. Therefore, I decided to create my own booklet that could be distributed free of charge to elementary school teachers to be utilized in the classroom. It is designed for 3-5 grade readers, but all ages will find the facts and descriptions fun and useful. I partnered with Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for the photographs and the parks departments of five Indiana cities to discover the most popular native flowers in their parks so students all over the state can explore their communities and find these flowers.

Upon showing the initial flower booklet to some school teachers to get their input, the response I most often received was, “I want to keep a set in my classroom library!” I inquired if they would be interested in a series of booklets and resources about the native flora and fauna of Indiana, to which the response was an overwhelming, “YES!”. My initial booklet on native flowers has now expanded to include trees and birds. In addition to the booklets, I have created a series of posters to highlight three of the plants or animals in each booklet. These posters are reminiscent of the WPA travel posters produced from 1936-1943 by the use of colors to imitate the silkscreen or woodcut process. I chose the WPA posters as inspiration not only for their overall aesthetic qualities, which I love, but also because they are commonly known for their depiction of nature and the outdoors and for their conservation purposes.

Client: Common Natives of Indiana - MFA project

Role: Art Direction, Design, Retouching, Finished Art, Research