The InterArts Series and the Visiting Artists Lecture Series present Patterson Clark, who will give a lecture on his work. Clark is an artist and naturalist and creator, writer and illustrator of the weekly Urban Jungle series in The Washington Post. A few years ago, he became concerned about invasive plants like English ivy, white mulberry and multiflora rose choking out species like American beech and tulip poplars that are native to his area around Rock Creek Park, of which Whitehaven Park is a part, and he got a license from the National Park Service to remove the invasive plants near his home. But ripping out the plants and throwing them away felt destructive and wasteful. With an undergraduate degree in biology, followed up by an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts, he knew that these plants had useful properties. He started bringing the plants he liked into his basement studio, and over the last several years, he's been perfecting the process for turning invaders into paper, ink, and, ultimately, art. Clark seeks to restore ecological balance by harvesting these super-successful colonist plants while putting them to creative use.

2:00 p.m., Technology Research Center (TRC), with a workshop following the lecture. Admission is free.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE).