Aquatic Invasion is a guide book to differentiating between invasive and native aquatic plants. I designed, wrote, and illustrated the book for my Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis at the Cleveland Institue of Art in collaboration with the Cleveland Metroparks and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. With funding from the National Park Service, the book has been expanded and published.
Production of Aquatic Invasion culminated with an exhibit of the book and its original artwork at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Photos of the exhibit and selected pages from the book can be viewed in the gallery below.
The centerpiece of the exhibit was a digital painting showing the progression of a healthy aquatic ecosystem to an invaded one.
The left wall of the exhibit showed large prints of spreads from the book.
The right wall of the exhibit displayed the original pen and ink illustrations featured in the book.
A table displayed a few copies of the book for visitors to flip through and some botanical art prints free for the taking.
One of the first pages of the books shows the invasive and native plants side by side with a short description of each plant.
Each section of the book begins with an invasive plant color coded in green.
The invasive plant is followed by a visually similar native plant color coded in blue.
The book then shows the invasive plant and the native plant side by side and calls out distinct differences to aid in identification.
