Artist From Tulsa, Creator Of 'Moonbeam Flora' Featured In Netflix Documentary Series

Tyler Thrasher is a Tulsa native who's been featured on Netflix in the documentary, "The Future of," in the house plants episode. He is the creator of Moonbeam Flora.

Thrasher joined Tess Maune on the Arca Continental Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages Porch to talk more about Moonbeam Flora, and the documentary episode.

What is Moonbeam Flora?

"They're glow-in-the-dark plants. They're dried, preserved plants that we cut, we dry ourselves, and then we dip them in phosphorescence mineral powder suspended in clear, acrylic paint. This captures the particles and then it coats the plants. So then you have a glowing plant that will last your whole life that you don't have to care for," Thrasher explained. "But you do have to charge it."

How do you charge the plants?

"So, they charge with black light, UV light, sunlight, heat under your nightstand lamp. Any light source, it charges them, energizes them, and then it emits that light over the course of several hours," Thrasher said.

What inspired Moonbeam Flora?

"So it's kind of a funny story. I was approached by Netflix to be on this documentary, "The Future of." And they said, 'Tyler, can we imagine a world where we have bioluminescent plants, like we light our homes with plants?' And I said, 'That sounds like Avatar. That sounds really cool. I don't know.' And they said, 'Well, is there any way we can like get a prototype? Or can we mock this up?' And at the time, I had a bleached plant in my lab and a jar of phosphorescent mineral powder. I said, 'Let me try.' So I dipped the plant in the powder, charge it up, promptly freaked out. Everyone on the documentary freaked out. Everyone on the internet freaked out. And I realized, like, 'Oh, man, I think I made something.' And then they said, 'We got to put this in the episode,'" Thrasher recalled.

What was the experience like to be in that Netflix documentary?

"It was awesome. I mean, the experience of making it like the people in the building with me at the time heard me screaming in the bathroom. I closed the door. I was screaming. It was really exciting to share it on Netflix, and to be a part of a really cool series and share what I think is, you know, a really awesome vision for how we can collaborate with nature in the future," Thrasher said.

CLICK HERE to learn more about Tyler Thrasher and Moonbeam Flora.

CLICK HERE to watch the trailer for the Netflix documentary series, "The Future of."