Laurie and Sarah Tennent Exhibit at Gifts of Art Galleries at Michigan Medicine

Laurie and Sarah Tennent Exhibit at Gifts of Art Galleries at Michigan Medicine

Sarah Tennent Exhibit at Gifts of Art Galleries at Michigan Medicine Products

A mother daughter art exhibit combinging images of botanicals with informative details about their healing properties.

WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI, UNITED STATES, August 17, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Laurie and Sarah Tennent are the rare mother and daughter who happily collaborate on projects. Their current one is an art exhibit that combines outstanding images of botanicals with informative details about their healing properties. Laurie Tennent is a celebrated photographer and Sarah Tennent is an accomplished acupuncturist who has studied Chinese medicine in China. Their mutual wonder over the healing power of botanicals is

Their exhibit will be on display at the Gifts of Art Galleries at Michigan Medicine, running from September 7 to December 3, 2021. The gallery is at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Initially they wanted to offer viewers a full-throated sensory experience positioning the photographs with live, or dried plants. Since the pandemic made that impossible, QR codes that link the viewer’s mobile phone to videos of the two discussing the plant, its personality, and medicinal properties.

Collaborators

The Tennent women are rooted in nature. Both were raised in their mother’s gardens. Laurie fondly recalls eating raspberries still warm from the sun in her mother’s backyard. “We have a lot of gardeners in my family, so I grew up playing with plants,” says Sarah Tennent, 34.
The women are deeply attuned to botanicals and their potent healing properties. The Tennents find joy and wonder in nature and want others to have that experience as well.

Their exhibit promises to help people see nature’s evident beauty and intelligence.

“What we’re really presenting is the essence and energetics of the plant,” explains Sarah Tennent. “That’s where we came together, realizing these images were also healing, and that the energy, almost the personality and spirit of the plant, is captured there.”

Laurie Tennent

Laurie’s work, massive in size, gives viewers an intimate perspective of a blossom, as if from an insect’s view. The brilliance and immediacy of the botanicals’ color and form is heightened by the nearly black backgrounds she employs.

“I really love historical botanical drawings and Dutch paintings,” she says of the two key influences on her style. “They’re really rich and very dark in the background.”

After seeing a garden exhibit of the glass artist Chihuly, Laurie realized she wanted to show her work in natural settings too. But the glorious outdoors is a moist world that can wreak havoc on photographs printed on paper. Undeterred, Laurie experimented with many materials until she finally settled on aluminum.

“I came to print them on aluminum so that they are weather-resistant. This method of printing,” she explains, “allows botanical art shows to operate during all seasons.” The dark background of the image runs to the outside edge of the picture while the image dominates in a painterly fashion.

Sarah Tennent

Like her mother, Sarah Tennent grew up sensing the magic of the garden. Early choices she made provided a framework for her future. She started studying the Chinese language and her love for that language carried through her college years. She worked in several mainland Chinese hospitals. There she encountered the wealth of Chinese medicine and acupuncture. In part because, “it is the only modality that addresses the nervous system directly,” says Sarah Tennent.

Later she attended Bastyr University to study both acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Besides Bastyr academic programs, it is renowned for its cancer research with plants. The college’s extensive gardens act as an extension of the classroom.

Bonding

Just as Sarah started her first semester at the university, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Sarah wanted to come home, but her mother encouraged her to stay.
During her recovery, Laurie spent her time taking walks, resuming gardening, and photographing botanicals.
“I realized how healing it was for me to be back in the garden,” Tennent recalls. “I really wanted to get back to my photography and my series that I created over the years on botanicals.”

Laurie’s illness in an odd way brought mother and daughter closer together. Eventually Laurie enrolled in a multi-million-dollar research study jointly pursued by Bastyr University and Washington State University. The study examined the efficacy of the turkey tail mushroom in combating breast cancer.

Successful Entrepreneurs

For the past five years, Sarah Tennent has worked as an acupuncturist with a thriving practice. Though she gravitates towards women’s health, she treats everyone using a variety of healing modalities. Information at:https://cedarrosebotanicals.com.

In 2019, Sarah felt her clients would benefit from wellness products they could use in their daily lives. She had struggled with debilitating cramps and sensed that other women were suffering. Seh formulated an essential oil blend to cope with cramps and that became the foundation for the box aptly titled, “Cramp.”

Thus was Cedar Rose Botanical born. Finding success with her own formulation, she and her colleagues crafted boxes to assist women with their monthly symptoms such as PMS, or stomach issues. The boxes, titled “B!tch,” “Belly,” and “Power,” each contain a hand-infused massage oil, a specially blended essential oil roller, an oral tincture, herbal laced bath salts, and a tea or hot cocoa mix that’s specific to a woman’s particular need. Information about these items and other wellness products Tennent has created are available at cedarrosebotanicals.com.

The Cedar Rose Botanical boxes will be available for purchase in the gallery gift shop at the exhibit.

Laurie Tennent’s photographs can be ordered through the artist. Her book Botanical: Intimate Portraits, filled with eighty pages of beautiful color prints is offered on her website. Also found there are her astonishing images printed on scarves, bags, trays, journals, and other accessories. These sumptuous items can be purchased at her website: www.laurietennentbotanicals.com

Many of these items will be available in the art gallery gift shop.

The Tennent Women

During the zoom call Laurie and Sarah sit close together, their bodies at ease, their intimacy evident in the way they talk over each other’s words, get teary eyed at points, and laugh together.

“We’re known as clones,” Sarah adds, slinging an arm over her mother’s shoulder. The two smile the same brilliant smile.

Sari Cicurel
Sari M Cicurel
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