if you are a minnesotan, it is normal to be dreaming of lush green islands at this time of year. and if you are lucky, you have already booked your travel. we don’t do spring break in this household. this is our busy season, our income earning months, that allow us free time and flexibility the rest of the year. so even though this is moss scraped from frozen earth near a cattail bed rattling in a winter wind, i’m choosing to look at it as a patch of humid jungle somewhere about 2500 miles south of our current position on the 45th parallel.

trailside moss revealed by melting snow

rice creek regional trail, saint paul, minnesota

those van gogh sunflower fields really do exist in southern france. we would pass them occasionally, and would always get out of the car just to gaze at them rocking in the wind. so comfortably and typically french. all ripening into what would eventually become sunflower oil for crisp vinaigrettes with the local wine vinegars. but of course what we were looking at were all north american natives. there isn’t a single indigenous european sunflower. they just found their way across the atlantic, loved the sun and the soil, and went a little bit native. we keep trying to find a way to follow suit.

wild sunflower in winter

swede hollow, saint paul, minnesota

this motheaten blouse was hanging limply from a stem alongside my walking trail. i took it off its hanger, and, despite the frayed collar and the raveled sleeves, decided to try it on. i think it suits me.

beetle eaten burdock leaf, dried

grass lake regional trail, saint paul, minnesota

when i started STILL i had only three rules: 1) found items from my natural environment,  2) daily, and 3) arranged on a bright white background. over time, i found it necessary to refine those rules in order to keep the project from wandering off. i added 4) no food photos (unless wild), and 5) no man-made or unnatural intervention. that fifth rule is a tricky one. what i intended was no glue, tape, wire, string, tacks, nails, vases, or ribbons. nothing that would detract from and compete with the natural objects themselves. if i made holes, i would punch them not with a hole punch but with, i don’t know, thorns, for example. but here’s the catch. i am a rule breaker by nature. one of my all time favorite mantras is “ask forgiveness, not permission.” so, this morning i got out an entirely man-made  x-acto knife and carved up these leaves. because rules, even one’s own, are made to be broken.

pressed and cut knotweed leaves

saint paul, minnesota

as both an engineer and an artist, i’m fascinated by eggs. they are shapely and beautiful, of course. but do you know why eggs are egg shaped? because they will not roll away down a hill and smash. due to the pointy tip and the offset center of gravity, a rolling egg will either roll back to the mother, on a flat surface, or will come to rest on a downhill slope. pure darwinism. pure functional beauty. the beauty of science. the science of beauty.

quail egg

minneapolis, minnesota