Local Artist: What Do We Pass To Our Children?

There’s so much in a seed. Past and future, history and legacy, growth and death. 

Then there’s the idea of preserving and fostering the natural process. Not long ago, Kingfield-based artist heard about the idea of seed saving, a traditional farming technique today used to preserve heirloom plants and encourage genetic diversity.

“We’ve inherited the seeds and, to me, there’s a responsibility that we have to pass seeds on and pass diversity on to the future,” Breen said.

She sums it up like this: “If we don’t preserve genetic diversity–forget it.”

Breen, whose art often doubles as social commentary, was instantly intrigued and attached to the idea of seed saving and its environmental implications. 

“To me, it’s one of the most hopeful things you can think about and it’s something that everybody can do. We can all save seeds,” Breen said. “It provides an incredibly powerful metaphor for how important every action we take is for taking care of the planet.”

Seed saving is making a resurgence in the country with the renewed and heightened interest in planting and gardening, but it’s a very old practice. 

“Immigrants didn’t come over with diamonds sewed into the hems or the collars of their shirts, but seeds,” Breen said.

A New Kind of Seed Art

In her first solo show at St. Paul’s Concordia University, and what is likely the most representational show of her career thus far, Breen plays with plant imagery in a mural-like, charcoal wall drawing, and in a selection of 2D work on paper, including her signature .  

Applying charcoal on a wall that will be painted over when the show closes, Breen references the ephemeral and temporal phases of nature. With white chalk on black tissue paper, she speaks to the fragility of life.

At the end of it all, the metaphysical question raised by seeds, Breen says, is ‘What do we inherit and what do we hope to pass on?’

“What is it that you would like to pass on? What’s the legacy you’d like to leave? I’d love people to think about that,” Breen said. 

Breen said she sees this show, titled ‘Let’s Not Leave it to Chance,’ as the first of many. She plans to expand and experiment with work regarding seeds and seed saving in the future. 

See the Seeds Yourself

With the show’s opening held unfortunately–and out of Breen’s control–on Yom Kippur, Breen chose to have a closing reception instead. Visit the reception and artist’s talk at the Concordia University Art Center on Thursday, October 27 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. The exhibition closes November 4.