Moss art: healing spaces and hearts
How can plants become art or heal people and places?
Succulicious Studio is a local plant shop on 1304 13th Avenue, Regina. Run by Renee Koolen, Succulicious Studio is a store with a wide variety of plants, plant holders, decorations, and more!
Koolen created Succulicious Studio to help support people, as she had previously worked in a support-based field. At Succulicious Studio, Koolen creates and sells moss art, something that is becoming more popular over the past few years. Moss art is a form of art where art and plants come together as one.
Koolen says she can build moss art of any size, as “I build all the frames from scratch. If there were a certain space you wanted to fill in your home, office, store and more, we do it right from scratch so any size can be built.”
Koolen allows people to have creative liberty when requesting pieces. “People can also choose different colours and patterns. I encourage that and like when people come in and have an idea of what they want,” she said.
“The reason why I make moss art is that I find, especially in Regina and Saskatchewan climate and this time of the year, we are surrounded by a lot of brown plants and environment settings,” she said. During this time of year, people can feel less bright and motivated because of the cold and gloom.
Moss art is appealing in many different ways. As Koolen explained, “I do moss art because I find it very healing with the colours, textures, greenery, and having that feeling in your home. Instead of just having plants around, a lot of people right now are using it in spaces like medical offices and classroom-like settings.”
The reason why moss art is growing is because it can be useful in different settings. Koolen believes that moss art can help individuals with attention disorders, seasonal disorders, and other types of disorders. Moss art is beneficial to everyone by helping people connect to aspects of both art and nature.
Koolen further claimed that it serves as a healing aspect by being aware of the type of moss she uses. “The moss that I use is all preserved. It is from a moss farm in British Columbia. I do dye the art with a natural food grade dye that has a natural oil in it and that’s what preserves it.”
Koolen states the art also serves practical purposes other than healing and to visually be appealing. “So, it does have the healing benefits of colour, feeling, and texture, but it also absorbs any moisture from the air. People use it in spaces where they want a noise barrier; it does help as a noise barrier for places such as an office setting or an apartment.”
What an interesting quality! Moss has quite a few health benefits and sounds like it would be great to have in the home. However, how can a plant be a piece of art?
Koolen says that because moss is a lichen and does not naturally have roots, “It is not constantly growing. In that aspect, you are not going to see it constantly change or grow. But it still gives the effect of a natural living wall in your home, or that you are surrounded by plants.”
One cool thing about moss that some people may not be aware of is that it does not require a lot of care or maintenance. Sometimes plants can be difficult to maintain so people don’t want them in their office or home, but moss is the best of both worlds: you get nature with less maintenance work. As Koolen explained, “Moss is very sustainable. You do not have to spray it [or] water it. It does, though, get affected by humidity.”
Koolen elaborated, “So certain times of the year when the humidity is drier, if you were to touch it, it would feel dry. But like other pictures at home, you don’t touch them. So, treat it like a picture. Make it feel like a piece of living art in your home.”
