10 images Created 20 Oct 2023
The Blue Print re(planted)
re-planted – verb. plant (a tree or plant that has been dug up) again, transferred to another place
(re)planted: to plant again, or anew
time spans circular, and what comes around goes around
life is (re)generated
re(planted) is a pictorial homage to the multilayered generations of mothers in my familial line, the land in which they were stewards, and the fruits of our collective harvest. from the rural farm towns of texas, across the blue waters to the lush, green mountains of jamaica, moss, okra, canna lily, rose, cotton, bamboo, bougainvillea, and other plants are visualized as backdrops to these ten poised and candid diptych portraits of mothers, grandmothers, and daughters.
i draw inspiration from the readings of braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants, by robin wall kimmerer and in search of our mother’s gardens, by alice walker. respecting how each writer beautifully speaks of the interwoven connection between the land and the mother, and the reciprocal give and take that cyclically occurs between the two. each element in these environmental portraits denotes my documentation process of gathering seeds and roots from the rural lands in which my ancestral mothers inhabited and (re)planting them in a garden of my own with careful observation of the life cycle of these ancestral offerings from seed, to budding plant, to flower, and ultimately to the fruit of each harvest.
my great grandmother, grandmother(s) and mother provided a blueprint for me to follow. cyanotype chemistry was manipulated with flecks of gold and applied to natural elements derived from harvests to create “blue prints” honoring their generational contributions as the backbone(s) of the family. i harvest from the seeds planted before my time and share their origin stories through collaging these images. by (re)planting seeds and continuing our tethered connection to the earth, i complete the circle of time in fluid motion, bringing the past to the present, and carry it forward into the future.
my practice is at the four-way intersection of inherent memory, tethered connection to the landscape, ancestral and historical investigation, and lived experience. by tapping into remnants left behind, i continually (re)connect to my roots and bring aglow the path the ancestors set forth, showing reciprocal appreciation for (re)sources the land provides, and the knowledge bequeathed to me by them. elements from long ago lend to the story of now.
our story is evergreen.
*capital letters formally denote the beginning of a sentence. since these words were chosen to speak of a family tradition and practice that did not begin with me, I elected to keep the script lower case.
April M. Frazier
(re)planted: to plant again, or anew
time spans circular, and what comes around goes around
life is (re)generated
re(planted) is a pictorial homage to the multilayered generations of mothers in my familial line, the land in which they were stewards, and the fruits of our collective harvest. from the rural farm towns of texas, across the blue waters to the lush, green mountains of jamaica, moss, okra, canna lily, rose, cotton, bamboo, bougainvillea, and other plants are visualized as backdrops to these ten poised and candid diptych portraits of mothers, grandmothers, and daughters.
i draw inspiration from the readings of braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants, by robin wall kimmerer and in search of our mother’s gardens, by alice walker. respecting how each writer beautifully speaks of the interwoven connection between the land and the mother, and the reciprocal give and take that cyclically occurs between the two. each element in these environmental portraits denotes my documentation process of gathering seeds and roots from the rural lands in which my ancestral mothers inhabited and (re)planting them in a garden of my own with careful observation of the life cycle of these ancestral offerings from seed, to budding plant, to flower, and ultimately to the fruit of each harvest.
my great grandmother, grandmother(s) and mother provided a blueprint for me to follow. cyanotype chemistry was manipulated with flecks of gold and applied to natural elements derived from harvests to create “blue prints” honoring their generational contributions as the backbone(s) of the family. i harvest from the seeds planted before my time and share their origin stories through collaging these images. by (re)planting seeds and continuing our tethered connection to the earth, i complete the circle of time in fluid motion, bringing the past to the present, and carry it forward into the future.
my practice is at the four-way intersection of inherent memory, tethered connection to the landscape, ancestral and historical investigation, and lived experience. by tapping into remnants left behind, i continually (re)connect to my roots and bring aglow the path the ancestors set forth, showing reciprocal appreciation for (re)sources the land provides, and the knowledge bequeathed to me by them. elements from long ago lend to the story of now.
our story is evergreen.
*capital letters formally denote the beginning of a sentence. since these words were chosen to speak of a family tradition and practice that did not begin with me, I elected to keep the script lower case.
April M. Frazier