GOOD SEED

The Good Seed project began in the Fall of 2007. I worked with Dave Dahl, a self described “ex-convict” and “drug addict” who turned his life around and opened the bakery Dave’s Killer Bread. I designed and edited a book to be donated to correctional facilities throughout Oregon and the United States. Dave and I share the common goal of producing the book and donating it to prisons from the beginning. Throughout my graduate training, I have changed the design and remade the book several times, adding and deleting some elements. I want the book to be good enough to represent Dave’s bread and represent our friendship during the past two years. This project grew stronger as I discovered my aesthetic voice and my collaborator’s idea. The book chronicles Dave’s life and the dangers of amphetamine use, and includes a chapter on treatment options for addiction. The 132 pages book is divided into ten chapters according to each type of Dave’s breads: 1. Blues Bread, 2. Nuts and Grains, 3. Rockin’ Rye, 4. 21 Whole Grains, 5. Cracked Wheat, 6. Spelt, 7. Good Seed, 8. Power Seed, 9. Flourless Sprouted Wheat Bread, and 10. Peace Bomb. The chapters were arranged in chronological order according to the time when the breads were invented. Each type of bread tells a specific chapter from Dave’s life. We named the book “Good Seed” not only because it is Dave’s favorite bread, but also because it is the term Dave repeatedly comes back to during difficult times. In addition to my and Dave’s contributions to the book, Harrell Fletcher wrote a bread review in which he described how Dave’s Killer Bread had become a part of his family life, my husband Michael Christopher (Pacific University, School of Professional Psychology) contributed a chapter on drug addiction and treatment, and my sister’s family (Kittimaphorn, Gerhard, and Preston Doll) created a number of recipes that include Dave’s breads. While making this project, sincerity is the key word I often reflected on. I wanted to present work that looks sincere and is fully respectful of the originality and integrity of my collaborator. To that end, I decided to use Dave’s photos in a straightforward way. I used Photoshop to carefully extend and clone parts of images to fit the book format and to have some space for text without changing or interrupting their original composition. The title of each photo and all book text are written longhand in #2B pencil, the primary writing tool used in prisons. The introduction to the book is my answer to Dave’s question when I first approached him about project: “Why are you interested in an ex-con?” The finished book blurs the line between author and editor. The book is not only an autobiography of the author but also an autobiography of the editor, book designer, and other collaborators as well. This aesthetic discovery made a big impact for my other projects. Sincerity has been a key theme for all of my subsequent projects. In 2010, I was awarded a Regional Art and Culture Council (RACC) grant of $4800 to fund the publication and distribution (to prisons, libraries, Drug rehab centers, and schools) of the book.