Artist Statement - The Joy of Flowers
Throughout my years in the arts, I have strived to give honor to the subject of each body of work. Whether what I was making was figure based or a portrait, I want to show respect to all life around me. This body of work comes from the romantic attic in my mind. From dead roses pressed in the pages of books, and then long forgotten.
The materials, copper and bronze are used to represent the agelessness of the language of flowers. Each culture has cultivated a meaning to flowers and plants; they speak of love, hate, friendship, and fear. In these simple vases, I made the flowers of copper electroformed from wax and wire by hand, then patina to match the color of the glass vessel, while the vessel matching the shape of the flowers bud, each is elongated to that of a Victorian dress. For in that period, the flower was sent to both friends and enemies as a message without written words. The Ivy was dependence, the tulip- hopeless love and the lily represented high souled aspiration. The plants, in images 01 through 05 are what we today, think of as weeds. They are made of bronze. They are stronger. They are thicker. They are harder to kill. So they are made to pierce through the vessel. The thistle, viewed by the Victorian culture as the representation of nobility is now a weed that pokes the picker, so the vessel has pokes of glass in the edge of the form. The "rock rose" is a thicker mountain plant that dries to the appearance of wood, thick pedaled, and if craved, will smell like its name sake.
Floriography is the word given to the language of flowers, and I give them honor by making them from one of the oldest materials in craft, bronze and copper.