What Avocados Taught Me About Art
Lessons in Propagation
I come from a family with green fingers. As a kid, I would wander around the garden with my mom and gran, not really paying attention to the names of plants I was being taught. Fast forward a few decades, and here I am with a small avocado nursery of my own.
Why I Can’t Throw Away an Avocado Stone
Some context: I can’t bring myself to throw an avo stone away. I grew up watching them balanced on the windowsill with their little matchstick stilts, roots slowly unfurling in a glass of water. Somehow, each one felt like a small promise of something.
For years we tossed the stones into our compost heap, where they promptly sprouted. Which, as it turns out, this is not ideal - a jungle of avo trees in the compost pile is less than practical.
So I started potting them into yoghurt tubs (yes, we go through a lot of yoghurt). And then, almost by accident, I became part of a small ecosystem: passing the young trees to the entrepreneur at the bottom of our road. A simple exchange - he gains the opportunity to earn an income, and I get the quiet joy of supporting both growth and community.
Through winter, the avo saplings grew slowly, waiting. Now Spring has returned, reminding us that life is always ready to renew itself. The air has softened, the earth warmed, and what was dormant stirs again, quietly yet powerfully.
Propagation in the Art Studio
It feels a lot like art-making. In the studio, propagation takes another form - a fragment becomes a whole, a single mark multiplies, a small act of curiosity carries forward into a body of work. You don’t always know what will take root, but the act of saving, tending, and giving space is itself an expression of care.
Perhaps this is what creative practice is at heart? A kind of propagation. We take what nourishes us, what insists on being kept, and we multiply it, through paint, paper, gesture, or word.
So the question of Spring becomes not only what will you plant in the soil, but also what will you propagate in your art — and in your life?
Until next time, may your windowsills (and compost heaps) surprise you. 🌱