Subject: Fossilized Aquatic Plants
Preserved in the sediment and soil of a prehistoric environment, the residual impressions of small water plants are captured in stone.
Style:
The granular texture of the sandstone compose the delicately structured fronds of the plants, which play nicely with the flat stone surface with minimizes depth. With a limited palette of warm greys and tans, and contrasting with the bright rusty-ochre of the complimentary plants, the surface makes for a calm and inviting environment that still holds energy and seems lively. The plant material almost appears painted on, like the waist of a ceramic cup or watercolor over rough tea-stained paper.
Context:
A continuation in the study and photographing of minerals, fossils and crystals. It is an exercise in macro photography, as well as an exploration in history and how objects are preserved or degrade over many centuries. Many people have the goal of leaving a mark after they pass, and they find assurance in being remembered. Yet fate decides for some living organisms that they be preserved in form from centuries or millennia as fossilized stone. These preserved marks are a reminder of our own inpermanence.
