Sculpture art inspired by weeds: Beverly Penn

From dusty, dry Texas roads (I imagine), artist and art professor Beverly Penn gathers weeds and uses them as inspiration for her exquisite metal sculptures.

The statement for her 2006 show puts both weeds and society in perspective:

"At least since the advent of agriculture in the Neolithic Age, humans have been attempting to control and improve nature, a process that increased in magnitude and momentum during the industrial period. We created machines that are quicker and stronger than we are, and modes of transportation, communication and building construction that are ever more rapid and more predictable. In the wall-hung sculptures that comprise Weeds, artist Beverly Penn addresses the sacrifices that accompany these capabilities, such as escalating energy emissions, disappearing forests, and compromised personal privacy and identity."
 [source]
 
More of her works at Lisa Sette Gallery. There are several plant species used in her work, at least thistles (Cirsium?, Asteraceae) and knapweed (Centaurea, Asteraceae), but also others.  I would have to look at them closer to be able to guess better.

What agriculture really is about...

Farms are captive breeding facilities for evolutionarily unfit plants.

                                                                                               - Ari Novy

Pooh got it right

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." - A.A. Milne

Some more weed quotes

Our attitude towards plants is a singularly narrow one. If we see any immediate utility in a plant we foster it. If for any reason we find its presence undesirable or merely a matter of indifference, we may condemn it to destruction forthwith.
    Rachel Carson

What would become of the garden if the gardener treated all the weeds and slugs and birds and trespassers as he would like to be treated, if he were in their place?
    Thomas Henry Huxley

One is tempted to say that the most human plants, after all, are the weeds.
   John Burroughs, Pepacton, 1881

"And so it criticized each flower,
This supercilious seed;
Until it woke one summer hour,
And found itself a weed."
   Mildred Howells, The Different Seed

A good garden may have some weeds.
   Proverb

Weeds are nature's graffiti.
   Janice Maeditere

Weeds Never Die.
   Danish Proverb

Weed Quote: Thomas Fuller, 1732

A good garden may have some weeds.  

~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732