"veg"

 

This year has been a great year for our winter crops in the veggie garden. Milder conditions and winter rain has resulted in bumper crops. Although I have often incorporated plant material in my books and drawings by using turmeric or other stains and finishes or making paper from plants such as banana leaves, grass clippings, or sugarcane mulch, this initial little book "veg", is the first about my veggie garden. It is like a small diary recording the daily changes in my garden using simplified images for the veggies. 

The cover is from handmade grass-clippings, waxed to give it strength and make it look earthy and damp. I continued the wet look on the pages by using stand oil (refined Linseed oil) to make them translucent. I was inspired by a lecture given here in Brisbane a few years ago by two German artists Uta Schneider and Ulrike Stoltz who used oil in some of their drawings and artist books.  I also used this technique in the little books  "Sleeping with a Princess". and "back to books"

This gives hints at what lies ahead and what has just recently passed, a bit like a diary. I used double-sided blue carbon paper for most images of fruit or veggies to make multiple images that change very slowly as they mature. 

The stamped text is code for the processes of growth and nutrition of the plants.

It was a good year for both Sugar Snap Peas and Snow Peas as well as "Tommy Toes" and chillies.