A hands on drawing and watercolor work shop that will focus on the importance of seeds, while making art, we will be discussing issues regarding loss of seed diversity and control of seeds, seed structure, dispersal and seed banks, both natural and manmade and thier importance in ecological restoration.
Participants will have a chance to see some species of seeds sculpted in ceramic. much larger than life..These seeds were created for “Seed Rain :Seed Bank”, a large ceramic installation that was presented at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum as part of an exhibition entitled, Soils, Seeds and Sprouts, Tropical and Temperate. The piece was inspired by restoration biologist Karen Holls lecture where she mentioned the term Seed Rain. which to me sounded both poetic and extremely important . I will show a short PowerPoint presentation about the creation of this installation and some of the expeditions and artists residencies in the Peruvian Amazon that inspired the tropical seeds. Also collaboration with the Chicago Botanic Garden for temperate seeds.
In the workshop participants will draw from my extensive collection of actual seeds, both tropical and temperate, subsequently adding watercolor washes.Participants are also invited to bring seeds of their own to work from. During the workshop I will share seed stories such as Methuselah, a 2000 year old extinct date palm that is considered the oldest seed to ever sprout found in Fort Masada, Israel. Also Native American seed stories and related TEK, Traditional Ecological Knowledge.With this year's water theme, we will also discuss plants that inhabit aquatic ecosystems such as Mangroves, Papyrus, Water lilies, and Lotuses.
