June Bunch: State Flower Ladies
Opening Reception/Meet the Artist:
Saturday, April 11, 5pm to 8pm
Gallery Talk with June Bunch + Live Music:
Thursday, April 23, 5:30pm to 7pm
On view: April 3 – May 2
For State Flower Ladies, June Bunch transforms 50 state flowers into botanical ballerinas. Her illustrations combine figure drawing with floral theatrics, adding elements of vibrant colors and texture-rich embroidery to her work. In an instant, her images stretch the viewer’s eye past the present to see the blossom’s full-seasonal vitality, summarized in one frozen motion.
Bunch curates contemporary illustrations by studying plants’ “choreography” of growth, illuminating their dance with vibrant colors and clean lines. Her visual art remains rooted in botany and ballet, featuring postures that hold emotional richness, highlighting human nature and flora in a bold, empowering way.
The art is created first through expressive figure drawings and botanical sketches that are then translated digitally and drawn line-by-line with a pen-tool, tending to each marking with thoughtful detail.
To dive into the story behind each illustration, you can visit https://www.junebunch.com/illustration
About the artist:
June Bunch (@junebunchstudio) is a self-taught illustrator from St. Petersburg, FL. Her art focuses on natural growth, interpreting plants’ movement through human body language. She studied botany and illustrated for plant nurseries before moving to Juneau, AK as a naturalist guide. There, June grew inspired by the “choreography” of the natural world around her and humanized it, incorporating figure drawing paired with a love of dance.
Her work has won an honorable mention at the Morean Arts Center and has been on display at the Imagine Museum, Dunedin Fine Arts Center, Five Deuces Galleria, Art@400, The Werk Gallery, and the Gulf Coast Arts Alliance Gallery. She has recently been awarded a micro-grant from the Gobioff Foundation which sponsored a portion of the State Flower Ladies exhibition.
This exhibition includes illustrations of each state flower below:
| Alabama | Camellia | Camellia japonica |
| Alaska | Forget-me-not | Myosotis alpestris |
| Arizona | Saguaro cactus blossom | Carnegiea gigantea |
| Arkansas | Apple blossom | Malus |
| California | California poppy | Eschscholzia californica |
| Colorado | Colorado blue columbine | Aquilegia coerulea |
| Connecticut | Mountain laurel | Kalmia latifolia |
| Delaware | Peach blossom | Prunus persica |
| Florida | Orange blossom | Citrus sinensis |
| Georgia | Cherokee rose | Rosa laevigata |
| Hawaii | Hawaiian hibiscus | Hibiscus brackenridgei |
| Idaho | Syringa, mock orange | Philadelphus lewisii |
| Illinois | Violet | Viola |
| Indiana | Peony | Paeonia |
| Iowa | Wild rose | Rosa arkansana |
| Kansas | Sunflower | Helianthus annuus |
| Kentucky | Goldenrod | Solidago gigantea |
| Louisiana | Magnolia | Magnolia |
| Maine | White pine cone and tassel | Pinus strobus |
| Maryland | Black-eyed susan | Rudbeckia hirta |
| Massachusetts | Mayflower | Epigaea repens |
| Michigan | Apple blossom | Malus |
| Minnesota | Pink and white lady’s slipper | Cypripedium reginae |
| Mississippi | Magnolia | Magnolia |
| Missouri | Hawthorn | Crataegus |
| Montana | Bitterroot | Lewisia rediviva |
| Nebraska | Goldenrod | Solidago gigantea |
| Nevada | Sagebrush | Artemisia tridentata |
| New Hampshire | Purple lilac | Syringa vulgaris |
| New Jersey | Violet | Viola sororia |
| New Mexico | Yucca flower | Yucca |
| New York | Rose | Rosa |
| North Carolina | dogwood | Cornus florida |
| North Dakota | Wild prairie rose | Rosa blanda or arkansana |
| Ohio | Scarlet carnation | Dianthus caryophyllus |
| Oklahoma | Oklahoma rose | Rosa |
| Oregon | Oregon grape | Berberis aquifolium |
| Pennsylvania | Mountain laurel | Kalmia latifolia |
| Rhode Island | Violet | Viola |
| South Carolina | Yellow jessamine | Gelsemium sempervirens |
| South Dakota | Pasque flower | Pulsatilla hirsutissima |
| Tennessee | Iris | Iris |
| Texas | Bluebonnet spp. | Lupinus spp. |
| Utah | Sego lily | Calochortus nuttallii |
| Vermont | Red clover | Trifolium pratense |
| Virginia | dogwood | Cornus florida |
| Washington | Coast rhododendron | Rhododendron macrophyllum |
| West Virginia | Rhododendron | Rhododendron maximum |
| Wisconsin | Wood violet | Viola papilionacea |
| Wyoming | Indian paintbrush | Castilleja linariifolia |