Pine Portal at Northside Workshop

Northside Workshop is an art non-profit organization in Old North St. Louis that educates about the importance of bees and pollinators to our food, ecology, and community. The art studio, a chemical-free teaching garden, and bee sanctuary aim to inspire self-expression, environmental stewardship, food sovereignty, and community building. The workshops and curriculums are rooted in experiential learning, collaboration, and empathy with the urban ecosystem.

I made Pine Portal, a cyanotype print, collaboratively with Juan William Chavez, Kiersten Torrez, and Rami Antoine at Northside Workshop. We collected fallen pine branches and arranged the print together under the midsummer sun. It hung between two pine trees creating a portal entrance in the woodland section of the garden for the summer of 2025. Rami and I collaboratively designed and planted the two beds below the trees with native shade loving plants like quinine, ironweed, jack in the pulpit, foam flower, and ferns.

Photos by Andrea Simms