Cara Lee
Wade

Fossil Poetry

Wild plants choose the space in which they reside; they have memory, and they learn. Domesticated plants grow and thrive based on the care and attention they receive. Indigenous botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer quantifies plants as "animated, living beings and as living beings they breathe, dance and preen". These images explore how a plant's sense space and place directly enhanced my experience with place.

A Note about Location
I began making Lumens in 2018. Each body of Lumens are made in a specific place. At this time, I have created bodies of Lumens in Portage, Indiana at the Taleamor Park Artist Residency, in my home in Fort Wayne, Indiana during the 2020 quarantine, in my family home in Southern Georgia, at The Golden Apple Artist Residency in Coastal Maine and South Porch Artist Residency in Summerville, South Carolina. I am available to create site specific bodies of Lumens as well as teach workshops on the lumen technique.

Archival Images from Cameraless Lumen Prints
Lumen Prints are solar photograms – a cameraless photographic process involving black and white photographic paper, in this case organic materials, and the Sun. The Sun reacts with and infiltrates the organic materials to produce image and color in the black and white paper. The images are temporary; prolonged exposure to the sun will result in the disappearance of the imagery so the images are then scanned, enlarged, and printed archivally on transparent Aluminum metal plates.