Color Lab: Natural Dye & Paint Workshop

Color Lab is a natural dye and paint workshop. In this collaborative creation space, the healing powers of nature come alive as we craft unique designs on fabric with plants. In our approach to food as medicine, we explore the health benefits and cultural significance of food, ways to ethically source our food and how to transform it into art. In Color Lab, we enjoy the medicinal magic of dye plants in the form of herbal drinks that contain the same ingredients. Participants are invited to activate their unique creativity and honor the environment using natural materials. They will learn how to make their own plant-based colors and incorporate fresh food into their diet for a sustainable lifestyle.

Objectives:

• Create your own painting and dyed fabric
• Make colors from plants for paint and natural dye
• Learn how to incorporate fresh, nutritious food into your diet
• Use ancestral kitchen medicines from African healing traditions
• Honor the environment with ethical materials

Participants will leave with their own artwork and a care package that contains herbal powders and a booklet about natural color. Materials, food and drinks are provided.

FACILITATOR

Alexis Akua is a visual artist, writer, researcher and herbalist with Caribbean and West African roots. She loves to create holistic experiences rooted in wellness and creativity. Born into a lineage of farmers in the rural south, she finds magic in sharing about the nature-based technologies of visual storytelling and land cultivation. She studied Fine Art at Parsons School of Design and Painting at Maryland Institute College of Art. In 2022, she was an environmental artist and writer in residence at Fernland Studios. In 2024, she was the Creative Director at Promise Land Urban Farm. She is the founder of Genie Botanica and runs her independent practice Akua Studio. Her artwork has been included in solo and group exhibitions in Florida, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Toronto, and London.

ABOUT GENIE BOTANICA

Genie Botanica is a craft studio and native market preserving ancestral art and plant wisdom in the African diaspora. Based in Florida, we provide handcrafted artisanal goods, herbal medicine and books. On native Timucua and Apalachee land, our mission is to encourage holistic connection with the natural world through collaborative projects and environmental education rooted in ancient knowledge systems.

Host or Publisher White Harvest Farms