Botkin is in the middle of on-going documentary project featuring Moon Trees. Initially, these trees were kept secret. The Forest Service and NASA did not make detailed records of their locations after their Apollo 14 mission (as seeds). As time passed and the Space Race came to an end, the trees became unimportant and forgotten. Today, many of the known surviving trees are here because they were marked with a plaque, but a majority of these trees have “slipped through the cracks of history” and are only locatable by memory and word of mouth.

Currently, Botkin has seen and photographed 45 trees. During her photographic pilgrimages she tries to gather as much information as possible, this includes maps, pamphlets, tree seeds and other paraphernalia that the host location may offer. Upon the completion of the project, she hopes to have a published book of images and collected materials for the Moon Trees’ 50th birthday in 2021.

Botkin gravitates toward the absurd and her practice fluctuates between bodies of work where she examines her place in society, interactions with other people, and cultural or societal concerns of the environment in which she lives. Both shows (at Project Space and N Space) examine the fleeting fame society assigns to people or objects.

Botkin was born and raised in Northern California. She received her BA from Humboldt State University and MFA from The University of Texas at Austin. Botkin has recently relocated back to northern California where she lives and teaches.