Floral Vanitas

This piece is inspired by Dutch 17^th century artist Rachel Ruysch who had access to an exceptional collection of scientific specimens and Amsterdam’s famed botanical gardens. Her flower paintings are exquisite, intricate, lifelike floral compositions for which she became famous. The other inspiration is Dutch vanitas paintings; a feast of earthly symbols, theatrical, exuberance, melodrama of a hanging tulip petal, a falling leaf, against its underlaying darker side of mortality, a skull indicating that everything is temporary, including our own earthly lives. A momento mori. Life is ephemeral, which is both sobering and liberating. It’s quite personal; I see mortality to enjoy the moment you have, experiment with my work, lots of potential to experience, joy to be alive. This earthly paradise, a garden of love, full of flowers, a reflection of beauty, vitality, growth and life.

The fully bloomed stag skull captures the viewer’s attention with its detail and colour and indicates beauty and abundance. However, I wanted to hint that this state of existence does not last; besides the stag skull, some flowers are in the process of decaying, with their heads pointing down and brittle drooping leaves hanging on the side. These details show flaws in this garden, showing that beautiful appearances do not last forever.

Each flower petal is a study on its own, there are no 2 pieces the same. All the petals are then hand-stitched into a 3-dimensional flower. These petals are double sided embroideries, so when stitching I need to immensely concentrate that both sides, front and back, although different, will be aesthetic on both sides.