Events

Please join the Board Members of West Cook Wild Ones for a members only meeting. We want to celebrate our accomplishments for the pandemic year and plan for the year ahead. In 2021, our monthly programs continued online, our spring native plant sale sold a record number plants, our in-person native garden tour featured 8 beautiful gardens, our grant program helped fund 11 native gardens, and our membership grew to over 250 strong! None of this would have been possible without you! We want to thank our members for your support by offering a celebration featuring a virtual art class with noted botanic illustrator and conservation steward, Kathleen Garness. We also hope an opportunity to get better acquainted and to hear your ideas for our Wild Ones Chapter! Meeting Outline Brief business meeting: Introduce new board member, Kerrie Gonzales Announce elected board officers Highlight our accomplishments for 2021 Give a sneak peek at our plans for 2022 Art class with botanic illustrator extraordinaire, Kathleen Garness (!) Kathy will give an interactive botanical drawing mini-workshop No special materials will be required, but we will send a short list of materials that might be fun to have in early January. Socialize in small Zoom breakout rooms (aka-Speed dating for native plant nerds!) Meet other members in a fun and informal setting Tell us about your favorite native plant or why you choose natives Did anything unexpected grow or happen in your garden?   Sound like fun but you're not a member? Join us here: https://westcook.wildones.org/join/ Kathleen Garness Bio Kathleen's illustrations explore the role of light and space while conveying details about our native orchids. Much of her artwork reflects not only her life-long fascination with orchids, but her field experiences through Plants of Concern's rare plant monitoring program at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Kathleen worked as a commercial artist for over a decade before taking up the banner of natural history art. Morton Arboretum's certificate program of botanical and scientific illustration allowed her to study with some of the best teachers in the Midwest. She has worked with the Field Museum and The Nature Conservancy to produce educational materials for the growing community of natural areas restoration volunteers. A grant from the American Society of Botanical Artists allowed her to introduce botanical illustration to a new and more diverse audience. Participation in the Chicago Botanic Garden's Plants of Concern program offers Kathy a unique window into the connections between ecology and the lure of the beautiful as well as the tensions between wildlife under pressure and the demands of human need. She is author of the Field Museum's Common Plant Families of the Chicago Region and the Dunesland Habitat Guide. A woodland habitat guide is in the works. As steward of one of the Chicago region's highest quality duneland sites, she has had the opportunity to become familiar with these rare and hardy species that call our lakeshores their home.