Cultivated
What is the Cultivated project?
Are those planets? No, they’re plants from my allotment garden viewed from my microscope.
“Cultivated” calls on my experience as an artist, a scientist and a gardener. I grow vegetables, slice them up and use the photographs I take through my microscope as source materials for my abstract art.
cultivated
adjective
kuhl-tuh-vey-tid
1) prepared and used for raising crops
2) produced, as a plant
3) educated; refined; cultured
I’ve had an allotment garden for years, growing food every summer. When I found an old microscope at a flea market recently, my produce was the obvious choice to experiment with.
My degree was in Biology. Tinkering around with plants and microscopes has been so much fun. I was a bit rusty at first, it’s been a while, but it gradually came back.
When I prepare my samples, I use what I have at home. I use a potato peeler to slice them, and food colouring instead of special stains.
Cultivated is a new project. It started out as a little experiment, but it quickly grew into a major project. I’m planning on showing it as an installation at the Toronto Outdoor Art Show this summer.
My plants taste pretty good too!
