I picked out the words to some of these pages a long time ago. There must have been a plan at that stage, but if there was, it is well forgotten. So, confronted with the words ‘A kind of reminder’ my mind was once again a blank canvas. I waited patiently whilst a herd of Wildebeest’s stampeded through it, and waited for the dust to settle. It didn’t take long. The words ‘A kind of reminder’ put me in mind of a memento or an epitaph or a calendar: crossing the days off to mark the passage of time: ever changing seasons marked by nature.
I decided to give nature a helping hand by ‘planting’ these antique seed packets. Well, photocopies of images of antique seed packages. I like the old charm of these, the design and the old colours. Some of these flowers and vegetables have faded into the past: they are now extinct. I printed these images onto fawn coloured paper to age them further.
The words ‘pushed into sand’ also suggests planting or embedding. It made me think of shifting sand: how the winds of change can disrupt and change life as we know it. Constantly destroying and recreating, but forever changing.
The interesting thing about the seed packet designs is that each design is made up of tiny coloured dots, stippled into polished Limestone with a German ink called Coal Tar. The technique is called Stone lithography. It was very painstaking work as every dot of colour is down with a needle pointed pen: each colour on a seperate stone, then silk screen printed. This is how it was done before 1920 and the advent of the camera.
Media used; Pearlised ink, felt tips, flower dome stickers, photocopied images
http://www.seedart.com/
http://www.howstuffworks.com/stone-lithography.htm