Love in the mist, devil in the bush, 2022

Screen-print, dirt on paper, Print: 26" x 40", Framed

Courtesy of the artist

Defne Beyce is a Turkish-born, Bay Area-based printmaker. Inspired by her family history of continental migration and time living in the American west, she explores ideas of space, location, movement, and roots. She forages and collects plants to learn about their fluidity, rootedness, interactions, and migrations. Her work manipulates the screen-printing process to prioritize using found and dimensional materials such as plants, clay, dirt, and ash.

Love in a mist, Devil in the bush
Every spring, Nigella Damascena and Nigella Sativa reveal their pale blue or white star flowers surrounded by a haze of ferny leaves. In the heat of summer, the flowers transform into distinctive maroon-striped seed pods that eventually crack open, spilling their shiny black seeds.

These black, shiny seeds are familiar to me. I remember one and live with the other. The Nigella Damascena seeds that sow freely in my American backyard are beautiful but inedible. The Turkish borek and pide I grew up eating carried a sprinkle of what we called black cumin, Nigella Sativa, across the top. The common names are the same - Love in a mist and Devil in the bush.

The nigella plants used in this print were gathered in my Redwood city backyard and printed with dirt from my current home.