This print was made for the prison portfolio project we put together. We were asked to create images that Critical Resistance could use that were not just negative depictions of prisons; but also inspiring images about what could be, or highlighting activities and forms of resistance around the prison industrial complex. I was picturing a parent and a child planting and saving seeds together. Also thinking about how many men of color are in the prison system and not able to spend time with their children; so I pictured this being a picture of a father with his child. Growing plants and sharing that activity with other people is a very calming, healing, and healthy activity. Neighborhoods that have community gardens, trees, and plants provide oxygen we all need! There also have been research that has proved that the act of growing plants does have an enormously positive and rehabilitative effect on people who suffer from physical and mental ailments. The other meaning of "save seeds" is an attempt to make a subtle reference of parents working to save their child from being stolen into the prison system (partly through all the activist work that will be done to tear down the walls in the first way, but also through preventative measures, like providing kids with the opportunity to take part in something very magical and powerful like growing plants together.)
