One of the most striking profiles in Upstate Now is of Poughkeepsie-based artist Julia Whitney Barnes, who has long worked with botanical imagery. At the Watervliet Shaker Settlement near Albany, she created Planting Utopia, an installation inspired by the Shakers’ medicinal gardens and their practice of making spirit drawings. Using cyanotypes and hand-labeled herbs gathered onsite, Whitney Barnes’s work resurrects the Shaker ethos of combining utility with beauty, while also acknowledging the fragility of utopian ideals. Arnaud’s photographs capture both the austere whitewashed interiors and the delicate blue prints Whitney Barnes tacked to their walls, creating a dialog between history and contemporary art.

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