Packing up my studio in March to put into storage was quite disorienting for a time. But as readers of this blog know our agenda was completely focused on house hunting whilst preparing to sell our home
so there was simply not going to be room to paint in all that.
Now we are 10 days away from moving out and tomorrow I will begin to box everything up. Today I visited the friend who's offered me somewhere really comfortable to stay for the month before we can take residence at our new home.
Somehow in the resulting chaos it been possible to get on with some projects and still feel like the Homage to the Seed project is moving along. In retrospect it may even prove to have been incredibly useful to have shelved the paintbrushes for a while as I have gotten a move on with the planned book, attended an excellent conference which required I give my project some real focus to prepare a talk and slideshow and managed to catch up on various important things to boot.
The surprise in all this is that several projects have turned looking actually very exciting with the possibility for excellent collaborations to come out of them. Too soon for any more on those things but I will say that its been so confirming that its possible to have to pull back and realise things can go forward and evolve even when one is not the catalyst for a (delightful) change.
Seeds have been absolutely instrumental in my thinking and
practice this past 5 or 6 years.
I have gathered endless varieties of seeds and pods... and
seen many of them turn to dust as well.
Fortunately I've taken myriads of photos of seeds along the way
... these are quandongs... a favourite for the colour and fact they
are a local indigenous species and a fascinating edible species!
in the seed lab At Mt Coot-tha
I've borrowed images... these ones from Wolfgang Stuppy at the
KEW Millennium Seedbank in the UK where I spent a 3 week
residency in October, 2011... certainly a highlight of this project.
my desk at the Millennium Seedbank -
Wolfgang's book in the background
seeds photographed at the KEW MSB
An Australian species ... can you just make out the name?
Wondrous the diversity of shapes, sizes and characteristics
drawing at the MSB
Love the textural qualities
diverse origins
stories... like this extremely rare species that the township of
Plymouth had engaged its population in working to restore
Labs are critical hives of learning and exchange...
seed lab sharing is inspiring... whether the loaning of
seed material or critical information and knowledge.
As I pour over the hundreds, no, thousands of seed images from the last few years I see all the stories ... and am reminded of people, conversations, projects, paintings and so many other things. I'm reminded of the colossal learning that has taken place and the fact that it's good time to be preparing to share it in book-form. Fingers crossed and all that!
On it goes... I look forward to the next chapter that's for sure!
Cheerio,
Sophie
Listen to the song by Alexa Wiley dedicated for seed freedom movements.
