“It Came From The Compost Heap”

Emptying vegetable and fruit rinds into a well-tended compost pile of a friend, I discovered this vibrant beauty of a plant growing directly out of the middle of the compost. Photographing it and layering it with many coats of fused beeswax, I cut out its shape and carved each seed until I was left with the papery outer leaves; seeming to need grounding, I wrapped them to create a supportive, safe structure for this newly emerged being.

A macro photograph was printed on textile, layered with encaustic medium and fused repeatedly, pigmented end to end, sculpted to shape, and then sewn together. Making the stitches visible became an important part of my process, deliberately showing what holds the work together. The strong parallel with how we outwardly present ourselves and hide what holds us together was the impetus for this change in method, integrating the function into the beauty of the form.