Frances Cannon
The botanist, the artist, and the book of what remains (Excerpt)
Artist Statement: Talking & Listening to Plants
I have been painting and writing about the natural world throughout my career—it helps that both my maternal and paternal grandfathers were botanists, my paternal grandmother was an herbalist and creative writing professor, and several of my aunts and uncles on both sides of the family aisle are professional botanists, artists, and writers. I inherited this passion for interdisciplinary art and science, and I’m currently creating an illustrated book of prose poems about mushrooms, beetles, ferns, mosses, liverworts, and love, from which this prose has been excerpted and reformatted, titled Bitten by the Lantern Fly. I primarily work in the mediums of watercolor and pen and ink, and my most recent book of art and writing was published by MIT Press—it’s a book of graphic literary criticism, titled Walter Benjamin Reimagined: A Graphic Translation of Poetry, Prose, Aphorisms, and Dreams. It is my belief that a combination of scientific, visual art, and creative writing about our natural world is the easiest way to draw public attention to the preservation of abundance, beauty, and diversity. I’m delighted to share this writing and artwork with the hopes of educating and inspiring both art and plant enthusiasts to work actively towards preservation of our continually threatened soils, plant diversity, and climate.
FRANCES CANNON lives in Vermont, where she teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and the Vermont Commons School. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa and a BA from the University of Vermont. She is the author and illustrator of several books: Walter Benjamin: Reimagined, MIT Press; The Highs and Lows of Shapeshift Ma and Big-Little Frank, Gold Wake Press; Tropicalia, Vagabond Press; Predator/Play, Ethel Press; Uranian Fruit, Honeybee Press; and Bitten by the Lantern Fly, forthcoming with Finishing Line Press. You can find her at frankyfrancescannon.com