About me
I am an artist working primarily with the natural materials of the Scottish landscape. The amazing life force and the forms of spontaneous plants fascinate me and I have developed some experimental printing techniques where the plants 'draw' themselves. Accompanying the plant prints I make earth paintings to remind us of the importance of soil to support and nourish us. From soil science, I now call my work Edaphic Plant Art.
The weed that springs forth of its own volition growing and thriving despite all the odds against it does this without us.
It does not need us.
If it is lucky it will escape our control while we are breeding, cross-breeding, genetically manipulating, and cultivating our chosen varieties of its distant relatives.
It is that natural world that a long time ago we once knew very well. We were it and it was us. We knew its rhythms, its moods, its abundance and its force. It nourished us and we respected it.
Now that harmonious, connected and deeply enriching human relationship with the natural world is an experience that relatively few of us on earth have.
We are increasingly dissatisfied, overwhelmed, aggressive, intolerant, anxious, addicted and exhausted.
It is a growing awareness of our disconnection and alienation with our true nature that has many of us now calling for us to protect and respect the planet that has been our home, has given us life and supported us.
Slowing down, tuning-in, sensing, noticing and experiencing that spontaneous plant life around us in the soil that supports it might enrich and nourish us. It might help us to find a stillness, to find a peace, and to understand.
Tina Scopa. November 2017. Dundee
