Etchings > Hermit Thrush 2009-2010

This body of photo etchings acknowledges a rich historical framework of botanical illustration and documentation within printmaking. I manipulated scientific source material into decomposing images. I created the reference micrographs during my undergraduate thesis in 2000. I helped my supervisor, the late Dr. Judith Canne-Hilliker, with her studies of the floral ontogeny of the Scophulariaceae, by looking at the species Rhodochiton atrosaguineum. We grew vines of these unique flowering plants in a growth room, and I carried out studies on floral development, using a variety of microscopic techniques. This 2010 work includes an artist's book, And Hide the Hermit Thrush, inspired by text from Canadian poet Don McKay.