Arvada artist turns plants into paints
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BRIGHTON, Colo. — Melody Epperson buzzed between flowers at Berry Patch Farms, when a stand of purple alfalfa flowers caught her eye.
“Oh, I’m sorry little bee. I didn’t mean to take your food,” said Epperson as she snipped a handful of flowers and tucked them in a quart-sized bag.
Epperson, 62, plans to turn these flowers into ink, a process that involves steeping the plant in water, reducing the liquid and sometimes adjusting its pH.
Since June, Epperson has collected plants from three farms in Adams County. Over the course of summer and fall, Epperson will turn these plants into pigments she’s using to create a body of abstract watercolor works that will be displayed in January 2026. Her project, “Dust to Apples: Colors of the Eastern Plains,” explores the landscape of her ancestors and her own connection to nature.
Video: Cormac McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain PBS
Until last year, Epperson — a former art and music teacher at Jefferson County Open School — had almost no experience making her own pigments.
Ink making “is like magic,” said Epperson. She first discovered the technique during an art workshop in 2023.
Not every plant is suitable to paint with. One of the biggest challenges is finding ones that don’t produce brown, said Epperson.
But by becoming a “mad scientist,” Epperson has managed to produce shades ranging from fuchsia to gold.
Over the course of her project, Epperson hopes to better understand her family’s history and how she and others have become “disconnected from the land.”
Epperson’s grandparents, Florence and Leslie Hill, began homesteading in Colorado in 1921. Originally from Kansas and Oklahoma, Epperson’s grandparents joined a wave of settlers enticed by cheap land.
Drought and dust storms punished the family homestead in Springfield, Colorado, and they moved to the mountains near Guffey in 1932.
By the 1960s, Epperson’s grandparents had transitioned away from agriculture and lived in Pueblo. She grew up in Lakewood. Today, her work explores how her family lost its connection to the land over just two generations.
“I had very little experience growing anything, really very little knowledge of what plants were around me and no respect really for how we got our food,” said Epperson. “This idea came out of a desire to pay homage to my own family roots and my ancestors.”
Epperson first pitched the project to Adams County two years ago. She received support from Adams County Parks, Open Space and Cultural Arts department, which helped her to secure funding from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District.
The three farms she’s collecting materials — Berry Patch Farms, Lazy B Acres Alpacas and Flying B Bar Ranch — are all located within Adams County.
“We're looking for artists who are interested in bringing the community into their art practice,” said Joe Murray, cultural arts coordinator with Adams County.
In addition to collecting plant material, Epperson is talking to farmers to learn their stories.
It’s a process that Murray said is helping to preserve the area’s rich agricultural history in a time of unprecedented change.
“The further we get from the land, the more that we don’t care for it,” said Epperson. “I’m hoping that people when they come to the exhibit will be inspired to go and reconnect to the land, through their hands, their body, their experience.”
Even after the ink has dried, Epperson’s process remains girded in uncertainty. Many homemade pigments fade or change color over time, something she plans to embrace.
“I don't even know what they'll look like when we're done,” said Epperson.
Her abstract paintings will be displayed in January 2026 at The Gallery at Taza Coffeehouse, located inside the Adams County government center in Brighton.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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