COLOR LAB

 

 

Color Lab is a natural dye and paint workshop and a traveling event series that seeks to bring the ancestral tradition of color-making to global communities. We partner with farms, businesses and organizations to host this experience. In our 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 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

(1) Create your own painting and dyed fabric

(2) Make colors from plants for paint and natural dye

(3) Learn how to incorporate fresh, nutritious food into your diet

(4) Use ancestral kitchen medicines from African healing traditions

(5) 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 is certified in Youth Mental Health First Aid and 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. 

 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

More info coming soon. Subscribe to the newsletter to receive updates.

 

PREVIOUS EVENTS

Saturday, September 27, 2025, 11am-1pm

in collaboration with Eartha's Farm and Market in Jacksonville, Florida


Saturday, July 12, 2025, 9am-5pm

in collaboration with Black Sustainability Inc and Eco Paradigm at Promise Land Urban Farm in Tallahassee, Florida

 


 

CONTACT

2020 West Pensacola Street, #20506

Tallahassee, Florida 32304

geniebotanica@gmail.com

@geniebotanica

 

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