looking for connections, or the pod story evolves

As I look around my studio, is it mostly filled with landscape images, especially trees. I find myself continually drawn to portraying my take on the natural world around in my art. (that's a whole other post for later)

Somehow I keep seeing seedpod images popping up around me in my exploratory art making. Where does this come from, besides the fact that pods are just plain cool to look at? Seedpods are kind of funky looking typically-which I love, think poppy seed husks! I think pods are often overlooked, they come on subtly after the big show of a bloom or fruit. If they fall off their stalks and if there are multiples they often make an interesting pattern on the ground, where they lay around until the magic happens. Or they hang onto their stalk like some otherworldly addition. Each plant produces pods uniquely designed for itself, like it's own fashion statement. Come spring or summer and they send up those tiny tender shoots that become new plants. Pretty amazing I say!

Who doesn't love bags and containers? Seedpods are custom made containers. They are full of the hidden potential of the precious seeds the husk protects. 

If you choose wisely  you can pick up a few pods, stash them in your pocket and then scatter them in your garden. Through the magic of nature, you will have wonderful new plants arrive after a few changes of seasons. 

So I believe it is these traits that draw me to them:

the uniqueness of the pods themselves. the potential for transformation. the magic. the beauty. the fragile tactile nature. the subtle colors. the curves and shapes. the quiet rattle of seeds inside.


Here are a few samples from around my studio of where pods have been popping up in my art over the last decade or so. 

Pea pods and lotus pods from older acrylic paintings. These were some of my "personal art", experiments with color, texture and abstracting around 2007-8. 

Back in 2010-11, I had a small group of artist friends who would meet and review weekly goals for their art and also daily drawings. While I often could not attend regularly due to having a job with a schedule too, I did participate when I could and enjoyed the push for the daily drawings. 

Images from copyright free sources and my own drawings have made there way into many encaustic class demo pieces over the last couple years.

Sharing studio creative time with an artistic friend led to me making some ceramic pods. This was my first exposure to working with clay. I attempted to paint them with encaustic paint, and quickly learned the challenges of applying paint that needed fused with heat to 3-d objects. It was still very fun and motivating to learn some 3-d art skills.

Felting was something I was very actively pursuing for a couple years while living in AK. I finally put it on the back burner to focus on my encaustic and oil painting. I have had some fun teaching some intro to nuno-type felting this year at Paper Airplane Designs in Livingston. This lead to more experimenting and some more pod making, some successful, some not, but they made good homes for my air plants. Who knows what form these pods will take next in my experimenting? I only know they will come back again soon in some form with all their magical potential.