The Very Atmosphere is an art project based on the idea that breathing the air means sharing the air. While air quality outside in our urban areas seems beyond our personal control we can improve our indoor air quality through the care and cultivation of certain plant species. Many common house plants can collect and break down chemicals and toxins. By filling our homes with these plants we can protect ourselves. By learning to cultivate them we can share improved health with those around us. We can also start to rethink what materials we allow into the home and work to rid toxic materials as much as possible from our lives.

The following pages include basic information about some of the best plants at improving indoor air quality and how to nurture and propagate these species. For more information please read Nasa scientist B.C. Wolverton’s book “How to Grow Fresh Air.”

“It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”Henry David Thoreau (Walden, II; Where I Live).