Saturday, April 25, 2015

BOOK: The Triumph of Seeds: Our huge debt to tiny marvels


"THAT spark of dormant life may be hidden and hard to measure, but mother plants will do almost anything to protect it," writes conservation biologist Thor Hansen, describing the marvels that are seeds.

This post is entirely taken from the New Scientist review ... see link below. 

Read a recent review by New Scientist:

The Triumph of Seeds: Our huge debt to tiny marvels - life - 19 April 2015 - New Scientist




"With light, engaging prose Hansen shows how the little spheroids we tip out of a packet are in fact supremely elegant genetic time capsules. The Triumph of Seeds takes you past the casing into the extraordinary inner working of objects without which our landscapes, dinner plates and gardens would be unrecognisable. You will never be able to look at an orange pip or a sunflower seed in the same way again.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Seeding the future"
Adrian Barnett is a rainforest ecologist at Brazil's National Institute of Amazonian Research in Manaus


Seeds have many cunning survival strategies, including desiccation (Image: Frederique Jouval/picturetank)
Well worth a read!

Monday, February 23, 2015

CATCHING UP : FEBRUARY


Its been too long between posts ... so a little update is called for.

Often I post at Twitter when sharing Seed Conservation material these days. Its surprisingly efficient and attracts such a good exchange of stories that I will suggest you drop into Sophie Munns twitter feed  if you wish to take a look. 

This is where I would find many of the articles I would like to share here at this blog time permitting.




I retweeted this post below last night for example: 






I highly recommend taking a look if you wish to be linked to many in the world of Seed Conservation Science and all things seeds, plants, food culture and sometimes Art + politics.




And Facebook: Homage to the Seed page is where I also share and follow in the search for quality information. 

Last week I shared the three images of the Caasowary bird and their habitat and rainforest fruit diet by National Geographic Photographer Christian Ziegler... see the whole photo series ~ 'Cassowary: Big bird in trouble' at this Nat Geo link:http://tinyurl.com/q7ljyhr 









And  the image below I've shared at FB, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and on Visual Eclectica blog ... I'm preparing to have an online shop set  up to make available Archival quality Limited Edition prints.





The other plan thats now in focus is writing the book thats been in the wings for some time. My last post here touched on that.

Ive been collating material for the last 4 years, photographic, text-based, articles etc ... notes have been made on copious subjects and on blogs and various formats... but what I have recently focused on was  a snubber of days working with simple pen and watercolour paper capturing the key concepts and directions I wish to pursue... 








This format was more fluid and being able to work between idea, text and image was incredibly useful for drawing ideas together at this particular stage. I plan to self-publish a draft of chapter one with a simple online book template to work through initial ideas and be able to engage with others who will be contributing to this book on the Seed Project covering the last 5 years.

Its both a very exciting and/or overwhelming task ... depending on which day of the week it is and what else is pressing at the time. There is so much scope  so the main task is nutting out what to include and what's going to be unnecessary. I imagine that in itself will require tremendous focus right up to the last stage.

Contact me here if you have any inquiries.


Saturday, December 13, 2014

Seed diversity in all its visual splendour!


Last night trawling around online I came across 'Trust me I Am a Seed Scientist' at FB and was smitten with their gallery of amazing photographs ...
                                  ... this species was just one of many that caught my eye.

"Scorpiurus muricatus is an annual legume species, widespread in pastures of the basin of the Mediterranean Sea and it has tiny pea-like flowers and simple leaves uncharacteristic of a legume. Its contorted, pubescent pods give rise to its common name "Prickly Caterpillar".

























Be sure to take a look at that sight for amazing posts on Seed diversity!

Friday, November 14, 2014

#thebigseeddraw this SUNDAY + OPEN STUDIO NOV 22 - 30


This Sunday I am conducting a drawing workshop with a difference ... this one will be FREE,  communal and relaxed... with all materials provided. 

UPDATE: SORRY TO SAY THIS EVENT HAS NOW BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO EXTREME TEMPERATURES TODAY IN BRISBANE. 

Brisbane City Council OH & S made a call on this yesterday afternoon when 42C was confirmed as likely temperature for the day. 
NB: I'lll be offering this free activity at my Studio over 9 days starting next weekend.

Between 9am and 1pm on Sunday morning people will be able to wander into an large marquee set up next to the Community Gardens at Seventeen Mile Rocks on the Brisbane River north west of the city cbd. 


This is a close up of the program where The Big Seed Draw is listed. Read that program here. 




Anyone who takes part in THE BIG SEED DRAW can take a photo of their drawing and post on FB, Twitter or Instagram with HASHTAG #thebigseeddraw to go in the draw for prizes listed on this flyer below:





I will also be running some sessions of the #TheBigSeedDraw at the upcoming OPEN STUDIO event from November 22 to 30 at my SeedArtLab Studio in Chermside, Brisbane. 

So if your based in the  Brisbane region but can't make Sunday please put the studio event in your diary and come and join us there... from Midday till 5pm over 9 days.



Student work from QACI 




OPEN STUDIO EVENT coming up at my studio!






If you have any questions please contact me ... and watch my FB page and Instagram for updates. We will have several special things you can participate in during this 9 day event.

I'll be back with photo from this event soon!
                                                               Sophie

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