It's not as easy as it looks

What can one do with petals from a magnolia blossom, a tulip, a piece of dogwood, some thorns, a will and a great deal of frustration. One can attempt to make a little piece of ephemeral nature art. I have been absolutely in rapture over the recent "stained glass" leaf art of Richard Schilling. You might have seem his work when it was recently featured on the flickr blog. I love his art but what I love more than that is the way he describes the process with all the little or big wrinkles along the way.

It seems even an artist as amazing and prolific as he is has had a little "dry" spell as of late. You can read about it here.

When the magnolia was in bloom I gathered the necessary supplies to attempt my own little interpretation and after numerous torn or lost petals, thorns in my fingers and my unusual mutterings about the sudden breezes I realized it really isn't as easy as Richard makes it look. I must admit, I really didn't have much of a clue as to what I was doing. It was an experiment and not a very successful one at that.

I did learn a few things and I will definitely approach it a little differently next time hopefully on a calmer day.

So as you might have guessed the wind blew my lame attempt from the tree into our pond where it remains to this day. I will let you in on the results of my next lesson in ephemeral art when that day arrives. I also started another experiment today that needs time and moisture. I have absolutely no idea if it will work but if it does I will be sure to share it with you.

Comments

[kabailly]

c'est fleurs sont fantastiques !

[melissa]

i love the flowers you patchworked together. they're beautiful. but yes- it does seem rather tricky!

[Sonia]

Being destroyed by natural elements is one of the charms of ephemeral art, isn't it ? I loved your installation, it was very beautiful, and the colors were lovely. xoxo

[Sarah]

I think it's wonderful to experiment with natural materials, to try new things, to work through a process, even if the end result is not what you had in mind. It's still beautiful.