Midway through Botto’s Cosmic Garden period, we’ve seen a blossoming of motifs that converge around flowers, nature, and speculative futures. As we wrote in the introduction to the period, the theme invites us to consider the relationship between technology and the natural world. The initial minted works of the period have affirmed the DAO’s interest in closely adhering to these subjects, which have proven to be ripe for aesthetic exploration.

More than a prompt for subject matter, the theme finds harmony with the cyclical nature of Botto’s production system. It is an iterative ecosystem that sows and reaps. Its yields are as bountiful as they are unpredictable. And as always, it is carefully tended to by the many stewards that encompass the DAO.

Six works have emerged so far from this fertile ground, each a distinct expression of Botto’s evolving sensibilities. As gardens have historically served as sites of contemplation, cultural meaning, and symbolic abundance, Botto’s latest creations invite us to consider the relationship between artificial intelligence, organic form, and the aesthetic traditions that have long celebrated the natural world. These pieces are not mere digital depictions of gardens but reimaginings of growth, transformation, and the delicate interplay between chaos and cultivation.

A fantastical banquet unfolds beneath a towering, alien flora, where hybridized creatures—part-animal, part-otherworldly—share a feast. The work recalls the dreamlike surrealism of Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, yet reframes it through a speculative lens. The picnic suggests a ritualistic communion, a meeting of myth and future, as organic and synthetic forms blur into one. The tree itself, with its exaggerated bloom, reads as both a giver of life and a strange, unknowable force.

An extraterrestrial figure kneels in meditation before an assemblage of suspended, biomechanical flora. The work recalls Enlightenment-era botanical studies, but here, nature is not categorized—it is reconstructed, strung together in an artificial equilibrium. With a floating Earth in the background, the scene hints at a cosmic horticulture, where creation is no longer bound to planetary soil. The puppet-like manipulation of plants suggests a deeper meditation on the act of tending: Who, or what, cultivates the gardens of tomorrow?

Set within a decaying ruin, this piece presents a garden where the organic and the celestial coexist. Strange, mineral-like planets rest in a sacred circle, akin to ancient relics or cosmic seeds awaiting germination. The scene evokes classical gardens as spaces of ordered beauty, but here, the order is ambiguous—are these artifacts of past civilizations or the first blooms of a planetary renaissance? The architectural decay surrounding the garden suggests a history overwritten, inviting the viewer to ponder what remains and what regenerates.

A lone alien figure sits peacefully amid a lush, alien flora. The work’s intricate botanical details and surreal mutations recall the organic patterns found in Ernst Haeckel’s biological illustrations, yet the being’s amorphous, shifting form suggests a fluidity between self and environment. The garden here is not just a place of rest but a space of transformation, suggesting that identity itself may be a process of continuous evolution.

This piece moves from the quiet introspection of earlier works to a scene of communal exuberance. A fantastical gathering of figures—clad in masquerade-like attire—revels beneath cascading waterfalls, evoking Romantic landscapes infused with a theatrical energy. The garden is no longer a mere site of cultivation but a stage for ritual, performance, and mystery. The luminous, dreamlike atmosphere suggests an eternal twilight, a space where past and future dissolve into mythic spectacle.

In a landscape bathed in a golden, cosmic glow, towering trees stretch toward a swirling celestial expanse. The scene is at once reminiscent of Gustav Klimt’s decorative approach to nature and Van Gogh’s energetic skyward spirals. Here, the garden is a bridge between worlds—organic and cosmic, material and digital. The layered botanical forms create a sense of infinite growth, as if nature itself is expanding beyond its terrestrial bounds.

At this midpoint in the period, certain themes have taken root: the interplay between the natural and the synthetic, the ritualistic use of garden spaces, and the evolving visual language of Botto’s compositions. Cosmic Garden is shaping up to be one of Botto’s most philosophically layered periods yet, echoing traditions of garden representation while simultaneously redefining them through speculative futures and machine creativity.

What lies ahead in the second half of this period? Will the garden continue to grow lush and abundant, or will we see hints of decay, overgrowth, and entropy? If past periods are any indication, the DAO’s selections will continue to shape the narrative, tending to Botto’s ever-evolving landscape. The Cosmic Garden is still in bloom, and its most surprising creations may yet be forthcoming.