The Seed Keeper

Libraries aren't just for books!

I’m very excited to say that I have been invited to participate in the Lake Oswego Reads program.

The Lake Oswego Public Library organizes this annual, immersive program that encourages all members of the community to read the same book, discuss its message, and celebrate an atmosphere of learning amongst all age groups. Additionally, a small group of artists are invited to read the chosen book and create a piece inspired by it.

This year the book is The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson.

In addition to being an author, Wilson is the former Executive Director for Dream of Wild Health, an Indigenous non-profit farm, and the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, a national coalition of tribes and organizations working to create sovereign food systems for Native people. Wilson is a Mdewakanton descendant, enrolled on the Rosebud Reservation.

---

The Seed Keeper

This dense, multi-layered story is about Rosalee Ironwing Meister, a Native American Dakota woman, and her quest to become whole. Interwoven into the story is the recounting of her ancestors’ struggle to survive the “Indian Wars,” relocations, boarding schools, and the collective trauma caused by these events. Throughout the book, the theme of seeds, traditions being handed down, and the evolution of farming techniques binds it all together.

---

My inspiration and interpretation

In this piece, I integrate several objects and moments in time into a single image.

©lesliepetersonsapp The Seed Keeper

Set in a pristine snowscape, a grove of trees is in the distance. A solitary set of footsteps lead into the empty expanse. A pictograph of a house, almost like a child’s drawing, is simultaneously an envelope, and hovers like a specter over the scene. In contrast, warm and earthy tones depict a cob of corn laying on the earth, seeds huddling in the soil, and a cornstalk reaching toward the sun.

The books protagonist, Rosalie Ironwing is a loner. She has had a tumultuous and insecure young life.

She meets and marries a white farmer, John Meister when she is very young. John is a deeply flawed human being, who nevertheless is able provide Rosalee with a place of rest, security, and unconditional regard, even love.

The scene in the book that created the most vivid visual image for me takes place early in their marriage. On a clear, cold day, she attempts to walk through deep snow to a grove of trees across a large field, but cannot manage it. John silently provides snow shoes for her. With dogged persistence, she is eventually able to reach the grove of trees.

About this same moment in the narrative, in the pantry of John’s old, crumbling white farmhouse, Rosalie finds an envelope full of seeds that John’s mother had stashed many years before. In time, through trial and error, she learns how to grow a garden.

When John dies, she goes on a quest to make peace with her past, and in so doing regains contact with her family and her heritage. 

Her aunt Darlene presents Rosalie and her son with seeds and a tiny, wizened corncob, kept in a small pouch.

I see the envelope, the pouches, and even the old white farmhouse as being safe places for seeds and souls to rest and incubate. From that place of rest, growth is possible.

---

Creating an encaustic-like effect

The technique I used to make this piece is part of a new method of artmaking for me. I wished to create an encaustic-like effect by using layers of different types of acrylic media.

Encaustic is painting with hot wax. It is an ancient painting medium that has seen a rebirth since the 1990's. Because it is wax, it has a beautiful, foggy opacity. The wax can be applied and fused in layers, so there are often multiple images peeking through, creating depth.

First, I drew and painted the main image. Then I covered it with Golden Clear Leveling Gel, then Golden Heavy Matte Gel. Then I drew the house/envelope. I added more color and detail to it. Then, using a scumbling technique, I intensified the white snow in the center of the image by adding titanium white and pearlescent silver. Many of the effects and details cannot be properly seen in a photograph, because there is depth iridescence and a wee bit of sparkle.

---

The Lake Oswego Reads Art Exhibition will hang at The Dee Denton Gallery in the Lakewood Center for the Arts, then move to multiple venues throughout the state of Oregon.