So Many Seeds, by Patty Smith and Claire Fouquet: Artists book, woodblock images with text. 3 inches x 3 inches when closed, 3 inches x 18 inches when open.

Created in 2023, the book/object, So Many Seeds addresses the war in Ukraine through image, text and structure. Upon opening the enclosure the viewer finds an original water color of a sunflower, Ukraine’s national flower. When one removes the Jacob's ladder from its box, two sides can be seen. The black andwhite images are of weapons of war intermingled with sunflower seeds. The color images are of sunflowers in bloom. The sunflower has long been an important part of the Ukrainian and global economy, as well as a symbol of peace. Since the war, beginning in 2022, it has taken on greater meaning, representing resistance, unity and hope, and used internationally as a display of support for Ukraine.

When the Jacob's ladder is manipulated the text is revealed, clarifying the images. Destruction and pain on one side, on the other resilience and hope. When flipped again the narrative becomes mute, not unlike the media coverage that has diminished over time. The cascading of the object brings to mind how one action affects another as a war has global consequences. The title and parts of the text are inspired by a video dating from the start of the war in which an elderly Ukrainian woman encounters a young Russian soldier/occupier and offers him sunflower seeds, telling him to put them in his pocket so that his death on Ukrainian soil will yield “....Bright yellow sunflowers against a bright blue sky”. (Jeremy Cliff, the New Statesman”.) The colors of the Flag of Ukraine.