Pat Brodowski is an endlessly curious artist who just has to get to the bottom of how things work. In her book, "Gardening and Foraging Natural Dyes," she describes all facets of dye pigments from plants and has taught textile dyeing at Common Ground, area museums, and the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. During the virtual "Plants Speak!" class last year, she actually extracted pigments for paint from plants during the live zoom meeting. As the former heirloom Vegetable Gardener at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, and as Historian/Educator at the Carroll County Farm Museum, Pat has explored the fascinating life of plants from seed to food, to medicine, in ceremony, and in art. Her passion is to link plant lore from antiquity to encourage plant lovers today. This year for Week 1, "Plants Speak!" she explores how the Lewis and Clark Expedition collected and illustrated plants important to indigenous peoples for food, ceremony, medicine and art. In Week 2, she teams with Ken Koons to create an outdoor Medieval artist's studio to make plant and mineral paints, brushes, and sketchbooks. Afternoons, Pat's students will meet outdoors to explore landscapes throughout the McDaniel campus for modern methods of Plein-Air painting.

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