2020, Mixed Media, Cyanotype and Acrylic

Thistles from my father’s lineage signify loyalty and bravery. Cedar, indigenous to the land I grew up on, a sign of home. Pine, an ingredient of tea brewed when sick, originating from someone else’s culture into my mother’s learning, into my healing. Clovers like the honey I made on the farm as a teenager, the labour of summer forage. Weeds from my front yard, in my view through all windows of my student house, taking over my rental property.

All around me is flora with meaning, flora with history, to myself and to others. I let the sun stain their shadows on cyanotype and immortalized their silhouettes. I took paint to them like stamps onto their shadow selves to emphasize their dimensionality and clarify their physical structure.

Each time I make something with nature, I learn.