WANDA CURRIE
PLANT LIFE
My friend Wanda Currie taught me a lot about meeting up with the plants and how helpful they can be toward us.
When Wanda was a young woman in the 1930's, all of the newly-wed farmers' wives attended a monthly Weed Meeting. These were run by an older, neighbor lady who had accumulated years of plant knowledge from her elders as well as from the plants themselves.
At these gatherings, the weed lady would share the way plants could assist the women in their day-to-day lives. You have to know that these women and their families lived up in the hollows and hill farms far from town. Well, the weed lady took them on long walks in the woods, along dirt roads, and in the fields and pastures behind their houses and barns so she could point out where the plants grew. She explained what seasons to harvest the plants, which parts of the plant were potent, and how to dry them, store them or use them fresh. She showed them how to make tinctures, tonics, elixirs, and teas to help keep their families and farm animals strong and healthy.
Wanda shared her plant learnings with me in the years that I was lucky enough to be her neighbor. I do have to say, the most important part of her teaching was about how to BE with the plants. Quiet ways seem to work well.
My friend passed away in 2003 at the age of 86. Since then I have been using everything she taught me to get to know many plants through out the world. With this experience, I have recorded the faces, spirits, and environments of these plants in graphite pencil drawings. Hidden aspects of their lives are revealed in a deeper way and show up in theses drawings. Call it what you will, but I detect the essence of each plant and score it with marks of a pencil on paper .
My friend Wanda Currie taught me a lot about meeting up with the plants and how helpful they can be toward us.
When Wanda was a young woman in the 1930's, all of the newly-wed farmers' wives attended a monthly Weed Meeting. These were run by an older, neighbor lady who had accumulated years of plant knowledge from her elders as well as from the plants themselves.
At these gatherings, the weed lady would share the way plants could assist the women in their day-to-day lives. You have to know that these women and their families lived up in the hollows and hill farms far from town. Well, the weed lady took them on long walks in the woods, along dirt roads, and in the fields and pastures behind their houses and barns so she could point out where the plants grew. She explained what seasons to harvest the plants, which parts of the plant were potent, and how to dry them, store them or use them fresh. She showed them how to make tinctures, tonics, elixirs, and teas to help keep their families and farm animals strong and healthy.
Wanda shared her plant learnings with me in the years that I was lucky enough to be her neighbor. I do have to say, the most important part of her teaching was about how to BE with the plants. Quiet ways seem to work well.
My friend passed away in 2003 at the age of 86. Since then I have been using everything she taught me to get to know many plants through out the world. With this experience, I have recorded the faces, spirits, and environments of these plants in graphite pencil drawings. Hidden aspects of their lives are revealed in a deeper way and show up in theses drawings. Call it what you will, but I detect the essence of each plant and score it with marks of a pencil on paper .
