Latifat Titilayo Apatira is an SF Bay Area-based Botanical Nature-Printmaker. Nature printing is a centuries-old printmaking technique, once used by physicians and botanists to document interesting and useful plants. To create her works, Latifat sustainably and respectfully obtains leaves and flowers, inks the samples and presses by hand their impressions onto paper, revealing a unique monoprint that is botanically identifiable. Energy is infused into each “plant fingerprint” with watercolor, returning permanent life to the ephemeral. In embracing a minimalist approach to examine botanical complexity, the inked plants illustrate themselves and share their oft overlooked intricate secrets of detail and form.

Latifat’s prints weave the textures of botany, history and art, and encourages others to explore the depths of their own connection to the botanical world. Guided by her Islamic faith, wonder of God’s creations, and a life-long curiosity about plants, Apatira hopes her work inspires curiosity, raise the questions of “what…?” and “how…?” and serve as a creative first step in confronting the modern and destructive collective unconsciousness that is “plant blindness.”

As a second-generation, Nigerian-American, visibly Muslim woman, Apatira is proud to bring an element of diversity to the botanical art landscape. She is a member of the international Nature Printing Society and the California Society of Printmakers. Her work has been exhibited throughout northern California including solo exhibitions hosted by the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Helen Crocker Russel Library of Horticulture, the Caldwell Gallery, the Redwood Shores Library Gallery, and most recently, Wall Box Gallery. Her artwork and writings have been published by the Parks Stewardship Forum and The Permanente Journal. Apatira’s prints are held in private and public collections throughout the United States and she regularly teaches botanical nature-printing workshops for botanical gardens, museums, non-profit organizations and corporations.

Learn more about Latifat and about her artistic journey at www.titilayola.com or on Instagram @titilayola