This ink and collage drawing is a hung bunch of flowers from my garden. It’s a subject that still appeals to me, there’s a concept I’ve been allowing to develop over time and it’s always reflected in botanical subject like flowers, stems, leaves etc.

The fragility of life’s process, how we age and change, how we try to select only the most attractive part of life to put our focus on. Not so much a fight between old and young but the way we measure their worth differently. There is no fight between them, both have their advantages and disadvantages. Physical strength and vitality versus a broader experience base and knowledge? That’s generalising but maybe closer to the truth of matters when it comes to what society values.

So in this artwork, by cutting the stem, hanging it, removing it from the flow of its natural cycle on the plant, but putting it into stasis by drying it, it seems a decent symbol of an aspect of this concept. I am trying to show how interference with natures process, just to preserve beauty for a little longer, may mute what was once a vibrant force. Or does it succeed in capturing a different form of beauty? Is it wrong to even try to ebb the flow of life force just to have a pretty thing be attractive for a bit longer? A lot of questions wrapped up in all this I guess. My curiosity isn’t coming from a place of bitterness either, now I’m walking the path of a person growing older! Haha. Purely observational and wondering even from an artistic point of view why beauty (defined however the artist sees it) is always strived for. Even if it’s just compositional beauty, right? Golden ratios? Fibonacci sequence? Beauty has been there, lurking! Ha!

Anyway that’s enough rambling.

Here is this piece in stages 👇