If you have ever eaten a blackberry or gotten snagged by its thorns or ever tried to clear it from your yard, you will love this show of Susan Applegate's art at the UO Museum of Natural & Cultural History, running until October 23.

Susan has worked on a section of her family's Scotts Valley property to remove instrusive blackberry vines, whole walls of them, and to encourage the flowering of native plants. As an artist, writer, and land steward, she proceeds with a full awarenesss of the implications and history of her chore.

The show includes her journal sketchbooks and finished artworks in ink, watercolor, and oils. Her frame of reference is broad, including Binger Herman and Luther Burbank, promulgators and creators of the so-called Himalayan blackberry, and including her own invention of a Blackberry Diva, mischievous, fertile, compelling.

Both lyrical and satirical, Susan's show is focused sharply, yet as all-embracing as the bramble that is the show's protagonist. A wonderful meditation and treat for the eye!

The UO Museum of Natural & Cultural History, 1680 East 15th Street, 541-346-3024, open Wednesday to Sunday, 11-5. No admission charged on Wednesdays and the weekends of Duck football home games!