“Honoring the Answer” Wild Ink Sketch

When I started foraging in our neighborhood years ago, I did so with a mind conditioned to take the thing I wanted. It was static; find the thing, take the thing. It’s the myopic conditioning that takes without asking, concerns only the self, and doesn’t consider impact. I realized quickly that I needed to reconcile this in order to move forward in this practice. A practice, it was and is. It was about that time that Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s words arrived to change my entire life. Unlearning and remembering, relational care, and reciprocity became the North Star.

Several years of this work–getting to know this Land, growing plants from seed to craft color, and learning how to ask for only what I needed, the Honorable Harvest principles–has changed how I relate. Can you discern when a plant is in need, and how you can help? Any tender of indoor plant family knows what I’m talking about. You can sense what they need because you know them well. Learning to ask a wild plant for what you want, and listen for the answer, is a step or two further. Honoring the answer–whether a yes, you may, or no, not today–is when you realize they’ve always been speaking; we just haven’t been listening.

This piece was created with foraged and home grown wild colors: Logwood (second use from an ecoprint batch), soda ash water, copper oxide, acorn cap, oak gall, chicory root, and chokeberry.

The ink sketch was trimmed and floated on an uncut mat, framed in hard maple and glass. The glass is reflective and not UV resistant (note studio reflections in photos). I recommend hanging this piece out of direct sunlight to avoid fading.

Alternative framing is not available for this piece.