Canberra artist Adriana Seserko with work she created for Military Shop’s Poppy Mpressions collection. Photo: Millie Seserko.
A poem on the Military Shop website begins: “There is a tale often told, of a place where the poppies do grow; where boys and men fought courageously to defend, country and home.”
This little-known poem by Canberra artist Adriana Seserko originally started with the words “My dearest child”, and was the artist’s response to her young nephew’s questions about her work for the Poppy Mpressions collection.
“It was the result of his curiosity and my reflection on how to explain war to a six-year-old child. I know they have an inherent understanding of good and bad, but things are rarely that simple,” she says.
Adriana was surprised when Military Shop commissioned her for artwork depicting the symbol of remembrance, which would be used for its popular range of functional everyday items.
“They originally wanted something abstract, and I don’t do abstract,” she says. “I went home, thought about it, created a few things and came back to the next meeting very nervous because none of it fit that brief.”
Nevertheless, the beautifully detailed botany-style drawings of red poppies selected seem to resonate with customers, with items selling to more than 1000 buyers to date.
There’s perhaps good reason Adriana’s work had this uncanny effect – she was able to apply personal influences to the work.
Her great grandfather, affectionately referred to as Dida Ivan, was the only other artist in the family known to Adriana. But sadly, he never had the chance to explore his talent.
A POW in World War II, he died from typhoid, leaving behind a wife who was expecting their first child – Adriana’s grandmother.
“She grew up never knowing her father and tragically, as a young child lost her mother as well, and grew up as an orphan,” she says
“Years later my grandmother has a small poppy medallion coin she carries around everywhere in her purse.
“I asked her the significance and she told me one morning, while walking alone around a quiet area of Mount Majura and thinking about her father, in the shade of the tall eucalypt trees a bit of sunlight caught something golden on the ground. It was her coin and she believes, to this day, it was her father’s way of telling her he was still with her and loved her.
“It goes to show how poignant the symbol of the red poppy is.
“I thought about that a lot, and about my Dida Ivan while I produced this work. I wanted to make something that would make him proud. I hope wherever he is now, he’s painting because I’ve been told that was his favourite place, and I know that’s true because it’s how I feel when I paint.”
Adriana created two works for The Military Shop – Brothers in Arms featuring the blood red poppies contrasted against a vivid yellow backdrop and Where the Poppies Grow featuring the detailed blooms on a deep blue backdrop.
Unlike Adriana’s other works, these poppies were not created to sit on a canvas. Instead, they were turned into beautiful everyday items such as scarves, umbrellas, notebooks and mugs to ensure people had practical ways to keep the symbol of remembrance close in their daily lives.
Experience has taught Stephen Davie, managing director of Military Shop creators BrandPro, that art for military memorabilia is always more authentic when it comes from a deeply personal place.
“It was amazing to see how Adriana took our thoughts and turned them into this beautiful work, which was better than we hoped,” he says.
“For her to create what she did, you can tell it held a lot of meaning.”
The significance of the poppy dates back to 1915, when Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae’s famed poem In Flanders Fields described the poppies that marked the graves of soldiers slain in service of their country.
The imagery has become something of soldiers’ folklore – the vivid red of the poppy resulting from the blood of their fallen comrades that soaked the ground.
The full Poppy Mpressions range can be found at Military Shop at 65 Kembla St, Fyshwick and Military Shop online, and at other stockists including the Australian War Memorial gift shop, posts offices and more.
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