Canada: Women’s Impact on Plant Culture in the Americas – Presented by Catherine Shapiro

Catherine Shapiro was City Farmer’s first head gardener – 1982

© Catherine Shapiro 2021

Catherine Shapiro examines women’s ancient roles as food gatherers, domesticators of food plants and creators of the first gardens. As an avid reader, researcher, artist and gardener, Catherine has amassed a wealth of knowledge and comes at her subject from a wide range of perspectives and personal experience.

In the 1980’s, Catherine began to create multimedia artistic works that expressed her increasing knowledge of plants. Her valid and growing interest led her to embark upon a lifelong research project on the role of women in the development of horticulture. Catherine has dedicated herself to cultivating and foraging plant materials to create environmental artworks.

In the past few years, she has tended and processed indigo in her own garden and at the MOP (Means of Production) Garden in East Vancouver, where she learned to extract pigment to make plant and dye. Working with indigo has lead her to experiment with other pigments and use them on a new series of cast paper sculptures.