Inspiration:
This artwork was inspired by pioneering English fossil hunter Mary Anning- known as the Princess ofPalaeontology. Her discoveries contributed to important changes in scientific thinking on prehistoriclife and the history of the natural world.An unsung hero until recently, this collector of curiosities is now celebrated as one of the mostinfluential women in the history of science. Her unerring eye for the art of fossil excavation madeAnning the most famous female paleontologists in the world.

Technique:
Remarkable Creatures (Ode To Mary Anning)was createdby constructing a hand-cut collage usingfemale photographic portraiture, repeated photograms and photographs of ammonite fossils.After coating the handmade paper with light-sensitive chemistry, it is left to dry in a dark room. Thelarge-scale negatives are contact printed onto the paper by exposure to daylight (UV rays). The printsare then processed by thoroughly washing in water to remove any unexposed solution. They canthen be hung to dry, developing to full density Prussian blue after 24 hours. Once dried, theammonite pieces are cut out and mounted onto the base print to create a multi-layered,3-dimensional paper cut collaged cyanotype.