Crop Art - Seed Art

One version of Crop art is also called Seed art, a visual art created in mosaic-style. Mosaic is an ancient technique of making designs, often from bits of tile or glass. Mosaic is also a contemporary art form that is employed across many mediums. Seed pictures, or Crop art could also be seen as a technique of pointillism, like in painting, and as sharing design elements with textile arts such as needlepoint. Seed mosaic images are created by fixing vegetable matter, especially seeds, to a background. Coleen Sheehy, in Seed Queen quotes a classic text on the subject: Decorating with Seed mosaics, Chipped Glass and Plant materials (first pub.1960) by Elenor Van Rennslaer "...mosaics are tiles, glass, or stones set in mortar. Instead of these you can create a different kind of mosaic using such plant materials as seeds, tiny pods, and flowers" (Sheehy 49). The Corn Palace of Mitchell, South Dakota is one expression of this art. The Corn Palace was first built for the 1892 Corn Exposition. Outer walls of the building were -and still are- covered in murals made from multi-colored ears of corn (Sheehy 24); The seed mosaic portraits by Lillian Colton are also examples. Colton's name "became synonymous with the genre" (Sheehy 2). Colton made many seed portraits, especially of celebrities and she exhibited them in the strictly defined "Crop art" category at the Minnesota State Fair beginning in 1966, winning many prizes for her work. Rules for entry of Crop art allow "only seeds from Minnesota-grown farm crops or cultivated garden flowers, fruits, and vegetables" with no wild plant seeds permitted. Colton continued to teach and make Crop art until her death at age 95 in 2007 (Sheehy 2). A new generation of Crop, or Seed artists, known as the "Postmodern School of Minnesota Crop Art" (Sheehy 90) is continuing this folk tradition. Some of these artists are "Cathy Camper, Alan Carpenter, Kim Cope, Linda Koutsky, Nancy Loung, Suzy Mears, Laura Melnick, and David Steinlicht" (Sheehy 90). There is a custodial aspect and preservation ethic associated with this plant-based art form; Making Crop art is not only a way preserving and rejuvenating a vibrant folk craft but its practice foregrounds the need to collect, store, and value the lore and varieties of seeds.

The Rose Bowl Parade floats employ the flowers of plants in a similar collage or mosaic style.