Specimens: specere "to look"

Between seed and tender shoot, between bud and bloom, there is movement. It is movement that is covert, often either impossibly slow or too rapid for us to track, so that most of a plant's life goes unseen or unnoticed. Try to imagine from a plant's perspective the explosions, unfurling, and quiet drama within their life cycle, from seed to seed.

A calla lily unfurls from a pale green sheath and the pristine spathe, like a sheet of pure white paper, curls inward. In Santa Barbara these monocots herald Spring. In wetter years they grow like weeds, nearly shoulder high. As the flowers I cut wilted I pressed them, and documented the golden wafers, at once leathery, and feathery, with photography, drawing and ink washes and direct printing. Transformations.
- Mary Heebner 2011