Monotype: Palmettos and Sparrows #1

by Nancy Murphree Davis
The Palmettos and Sparrows series changed during its execution. At conception, it was a very rigid geometric design, but as I worked with the palm leaves, more and more feelings about the plant, the source of inspiration, began to reveal themselves and expanded into more ethereal and literal interpretation.
Prior to moving to the D.C. area, I lived in a still rural, but growing area of the Florida Panhandle. Our house had saw palmettos in the backyard that were left when the property was developed. Saw palmettos are not exactly a desirable yard plant, but their importance in the wild cannot be understated. They provide food for many insects and animals, habitat and cover for reptiles and mammals and birds, especially the grasshopper sparrows, love using its fibers for nest building.
Palmettos are slow-growing; they gain only about 1.2 cm of stem height per year. Some saw palmettos have been estimated at more than 700 years old. Palmettos are by no means endangered but the older and larger examples of their species are threatened by the ongoing development by man and by forest fires that are fueled in part by the heavy wax covering the palmetto leaves which ignites easily.
I find that often the things that I take for granted leave an indelible mark in my creative eye.
Technically, this work is a monotype with hand-tinted collaged etchings and other collaged monotype elements.