Cathy Camper, a local Portland artist, makes interpretive portraits and images of nature from seeds. Her seed art pieces sparkle with color, and imagination; in a sense, they pay homage to the beauty and simplicity that abounds in nature. Food is more than for eating, in this story, it becomes the source material for artistic expression.

Are you a seed saver? A collector, maybe? I have been off and on over the years. Mainly I pick up seedpods of various plants that I think are beautiful. They sit in the windowsill, on my desk, next to the lamp. Just someplace so I can be reminded how exquisite Mother Earth can be. I like to notice the different shapes they come in, their colors, and even the textures. They really are something to behold. Yes, yes, they are essential for every gardener, but, in the case of Cathy Camper, they are the main ingredients for her works of art: Seed Art. For those of you from the Midwest, this art form is better known as Crop Art

When I got ear of what Cathy did with seeds, well, I was blown away! I thought I looked at them. Well, she sees them in a whole different way. While filming she mentioned she came across a bunch of brown curled seed pods, and her immediate thought was: dreadlocks! Look again when you see the Bob Marley portrait. She was so right. And a red maple seed will never just be a child’s imaginative ‘helicopter’ to me anymore. It will also be a woman’s lower lip.
A whole new way of viewing, and of seeing, art in nature.

Recipes from this show: Lebanese Salad Dressing; Mjeddrah (Lebanese Porridge); Warm Green Bean Salad