Botanical Study is a series of still life photographs which playfully combines botanical specimens with maps, mimeographs, and various technical tools. For this work, I collected, ordered and exhibited botanical objects in my studio, exploring the relationship between art and science, as each is used in the pursuit of understanding nature. The resulting images challenge the ways in which dominant ideologies, which seek to organize the ephemeral and transient, both shape and sometimes misshape our understanding of the natural world. This invites the viewer to consider the slippery distinctions between an objective or scientific world view and a subjective or intuitive world view, and hopefully, how these schemas are often associated with masculinity and femininity. The juxtapositions in these works also serve as a memento mori, designed to remind the viewer of his or her mortality and of the shortness and fragility of all life.