Starr Weems is the founder of Goldenrod Wild Arts, a nature-based herbal and arts practice rooted in the plants, traditions, and landscapes of the Deep South. She grew up in The Shoals, surrounded by miles of TVA land, with a gardener mother and a hunter-forager father. This upbringing sparked a lifelong relationship with plants, making, and the natural world.
Starr’s work weaves together herbalism, environmental education, and the arts. For more than two decades, she worked as an educator in public schools and higher education, designing and leading immersive, hands-on programs in nature studies, art, language, and environmental science. She founded an award-winning outdoor program in Limestone County, where students cultivated native plant gardens, explored herbal medicine and food preservation, learned natural dyeing and traditional crafts, and developed confidence through wilderness skills and first aid training.
Her contributions to environmental and experiential education have been recognized with numerous honors, including Best Environmental Education Program from the Environmental Education Association of Alabama and multiple Project of the Year and Community Project Grant awards. She is a longtime volunteer and educator with organizations including 4-H, Envirothon, Alabama Water Watch, state parks, and conservation groups.
Starr is also a practicing artist, with solo and group exhibitions at venues such as the Kentuck Museum, Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment, and the Huntsville Museum of Art. Her work has appeared in regional publications and literary journals, reflecting a deep connection to land, place, and traditional lifeways.
Starr holds an Advanced Certificate in Botanical Medicine from Rockwell and completed Herbalist Level II training with the Deep South School of Herbal Studies. She continues her studies in Southern folk medicine with Darryl Patton, deepening her focus on regional plant traditions and culturally rooted herbal practice.
Through Goldenrod Wild Arts, located in Double Springs, Alabama, Starr offers classes, handmade arts and goods, and consulting services for schools and homeschool groups seeking to develop nature-based curricula and outdoor classrooms.
The shop shares space with Black Warrior Brew, a coffee and tea bar, and Studio 108, a yoga and tai chi studio, creating a small hub for wellness, learning, and community in the Bankhead. Through Goldenrod Wild Arts, Starr also publishes Folklife Fieldbooks, a series of zine-style fieldbooks documenting Southern plants, folklore and traditional practices. Volumes I-III are currently available in the shop at Black Warrior Brew.