Sara Dodd

I collect and press beautiful seaweed fragements and free-floating specimens found in the rock pools and kelp beds along the shores of East Lothian. These show the life cycle from vibrant new growth to mature form, with the accompanying changes to pigmentation and ultimately decay as time and tide take their toll. My work is based on on old Victorian tradition of herbarium pressing, now presented in a contemporary context. The images are striking in their simplicity and surprising by their similarity to land-based flora, taking graceful organic forms resembling trees, leaves, flowers and feathers – their exquisite abstraction of colour, shape and form questioning the division between science and art.