After researching many artists, several of whom have been included in my inspiration pages, I have taken a great interest in the distortion and manipulation of flowers and nature. By experimenting with mixed media techniques in the styles of many artists I intend to create a collection of photos displaying the techniques, such as shattering and icing flowers, dissecting them, the combination of humans and nature, double exposure using online editing techniques, arranging them into other inanimate objects and working with the personification of abstract nouns via nature.
My main inspiration for my final piece is Andy Goldsworthy and his use of transience as a theme. I hope to convey a similar theme in my work as the destruction and manipulation of the flowers mirror Goldsworthy's work and it's eventual destruction by nature itself. Goldsworthy is a renowned land artist from England. His passion for nature and change has made his works stand out brilliantly in the art world. Goldsworthy aims to help people notice nature once again and ponder all of its magical mysteries. By creating sculptures made of all natural materials and constructing them in their original environment, Goldsworthy is able to observe the effects of time in nature. Time and the notion of being temporary are aspects of life that the environment and every human has in common. Time links all life; Goldsworthy’s ephemeral sculptures help reinforce the importance of understanding the reality of birth, life, death, and rebirth.
My overall theme for my final piece has been the manipulation of flora. By taking inspirations from artisits who work with similar themes I created a series of photographs which display this construct. I used fake lilac rose flowers throughout my work in order to convey the secondary theme of transience. Transience is the main theme in the work of Goldsworthy; his work is bared to the elements in order to show how even the things humans create will one day come to an end, I wished to further explore that notion by using artificial flowers in order to show that living things cannot last forever and will one day be replaced by the abstract.
My first photograph is of the flower submerged in water and backed by the golden chain of the plug behind it. My initial idea was to freeze the flowers in ice, in the style of Makoto Azuma, however, after much trial and error the end product did not turn out with the striking colours that I had hoped for. I opted instead to use water rather than ice as it created a similar theme to that of Makoto Azuma. The lingering bubbles of soap in the unfocused forground represent the impact of human life on prexisting nature and the flower being placed over the golden plug is to represent how easily life can be taken away and disappear. I used the Pixlr online editor tool in order to edit these photos. I lowered the brightness down to -27 in order to convey the dark theme of manipulation and lowered the contrast to -10 in order to make the colours more varied however I also lowered the saturation to -19 to subdue the bright colours slightly.
My second photograph is a macro close up of several of the flowers. My love of the work of Makoto Azuma is yet again an inspiration in this piece; many of his pieces are of many flowers tightly clustered together. The tattered edges of the fabric flowers are very clearly visible and represent the wear and tear impact of human life upon the tranquility of nature. I again lowered the brightness down to -27 in order to convey the dark theme of manipulation that lays over the entire piece and lowered the contrast to -10 in order to make the colours more varied however I also lowered the saturation to -19 to subdue the bright colours slightly.
My third and final photograph is of the flower destroyed and disected beyond repair. This is mainly in the style of Fong Qi Wei who disected living flowers and photographs them on top of stark white canveses. This contrast between the petals and a harsh barkground is also indictive of Jon Shireman, Andrew Zuckerman and Sarah Illenberger. Shireman's work is of flowers that have been put in liquid nitrogen and then smashed into hundred's of thousand's of pieces; this haphazard nature and use of complete and utter destruction I have conveyed in my work to the best of my abilities. Whereas Qi Wei's flowers have been disected very delicatly and cleanly I opposed to basically rip apart the flowers in order to evoke the nature of Shireman's works. Yet again I lowered the brightness down to -27 in order to convey the dark theme of manipulation and lowered the contrast to -10 in order to make the colours more varied however I also lowered the saturation to -19 to subdue the bright colours slightly. I made it key that the three photos in the set were of equal balance and composition.
My main inspiration for my final piece is Andy Goldsworthy and his use of transience as a theme. I hope to convey a similar theme in my work as the destruction and manipulation of the flowers mirror Goldsworthy's work and it's eventual destruction by nature itself. Goldsworthy is a renowned land artist from England. His passion for nature and change has made his works stand out brilliantly in the art world. Goldsworthy aims to help people notice nature once again and ponder all of its magical mysteries. By creating sculptures made of all natural materials and constructing them in their original environment, Goldsworthy is able to observe the effects of time in nature. Time and the notion of being temporary are aspects of life that the environment and every human has in common. Time links all life; Goldsworthy’s ephemeral sculptures help reinforce the importance of understanding the reality of birth, life, death, and rebirth.
My overall theme for my final piece has been the manipulation of flora. By taking inspirations from artisits who work with similar themes I created a series of photographs which display this construct. I used fake lilac rose flowers throughout my work in order to convey the secondary theme of transience. Transience is the main theme in the work of Goldsworthy; his work is bared to the elements in order to show how even the things humans create will one day come to an end, I wished to further explore that notion by using artificial flowers in order to show that living things cannot last forever and will one day be replaced by the abstract.
My first photograph is of the flower submerged in water and backed by the golden chain of the plug behind it. My initial idea was to freeze the flowers in ice, in the style of Makoto Azuma, however, after much trial and error the end product did not turn out with the striking colours that I had hoped for. I opted instead to use water rather than ice as it created a similar theme to that of Makoto Azuma. The lingering bubbles of soap in the unfocused forground represent the impact of human life on prexisting nature and the flower being placed over the golden plug is to represent how easily life can be taken away and disappear. I used the Pixlr online editor tool in order to edit these photos. I lowered the brightness down to -27 in order to convey the dark theme of manipulation and lowered the contrast to -10 in order to make the colours more varied however I also lowered the saturation to -19 to subdue the bright colours slightly.
My second photograph is a macro close up of several of the flowers. My love of the work of Makoto Azuma is yet again an inspiration in this piece; many of his pieces are of many flowers tightly clustered together. The tattered edges of the fabric flowers are very clearly visible and represent the wear and tear impact of human life upon the tranquility of nature. I again lowered the brightness down to -27 in order to convey the dark theme of manipulation that lays over the entire piece and lowered the contrast to -10 in order to make the colours more varied however I also lowered the saturation to -19 to subdue the bright colours slightly.
My third and final photograph is of the flower destroyed and disected beyond repair. This is mainly in the style of Fong Qi Wei who disected living flowers and photographs them on top of stark white canveses. This contrast between the petals and a harsh barkground is also indictive of Jon Shireman, Andrew Zuckerman and Sarah Illenberger. Shireman's work is of flowers that have been put in liquid nitrogen and then smashed into hundred's of thousand's of pieces; this haphazard nature and use of complete and utter destruction I have conveyed in my work to the best of my abilities. Whereas Qi Wei's flowers have been disected very delicatly and cleanly I opposed to basically rip apart the flowers in order to evoke the nature of Shireman's works. Yet again I lowered the brightness down to -27 in order to convey the dark theme of manipulation and lowered the contrast to -10 in order to make the colours more varied however I also lowered the saturation to -19 to subdue the bright colours slightly. I made it key that the three photos in the set were of equal balance and composition.