My favorite flowers are Passiflora, known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, they are a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, of the family Passifloraceae. These blooms are so complex, so alien-like and oftentimes simply outrageous in their appearance that they fascinate me whenever I see them in bloom. I've done several works using a photo that I took of a white-blossoming species, Passiflora subpeltata, that is native to India, that we grow in our Moon Garden at Tanglewild Gardens.
Banana Spider | Charlotte
Every year we seem to have one enormous "Banana Spider", Argiope aurantia, as I grew up calling them. Apparently that particular spider goes by many other names as well, like McKinley Spider, Golden Spider, Corn Spider and Writing Spider. It's odd that we always seem to have only one, since their lifespan is usually a year and we have had one for the seven years that we've been in Austin. We always call her Charlotte, of Charlotte Web fame and also the name of my Mother. Usually she is difficult to photograph because of where her web is built, but she was on our stucco wall in our Moon Garden, so I got as close as I dared and took a photo that I used in this piece below. Apparently, despite the size of these spiders, the bite is no worse than a common bee sting as long as you are not allergic to them, so that is why we leave her be every year. Maybe future works will feature her as well.
Triple Brugs | Reflected Sky
I have this stunning triple flower-in-flower brugmansia that I waited eons to see a bloom on, so I had to use a photo of that bloom in one of my pieces. I love the subtle curls of the blossoms and they seem to almost reflect the sky during the sunny parts of the day. This was the result of my digital experimentation with that photo.
Grasshopper | Shades of Easter
This piece was done from a photo of a grasshopper hanging out on a canna lily in our pool courtyard. I though that the antennae would add an interesting bit of line work in the piece and that is why I decided to use this image. The colors reminded me of Easter, hence the name.
Mixed Misc. | Departure
This image was created by a mixture of miscellaneous earlier works of mine. I was playing with shadows, depth and texture with these layers. It was titled Departure because this one is much brighter than the rest of the variations done in this project that can be seen on my Projects page.
Passiflora | Pumpkin Spice
I decided that, for my birthday, which is today, I'd work with another Passiflora blossom, seeing as it is my favorite flower, and I'd also work in orange tones, since orange is my favorite color. This is the resulting piece.
Red Canna | Cherry Cola
I wanted to create something with this beautiful canna blossom that I photo graphed in the yard. It seemed ripe for a kaleidoscope treatment of some sort as well as a more simple treatment with reflective blossoms. This was the result:
Yam Baby | Sacrifice
As a departure from my usual work using photos of plants or flowers, I like to occasionally use something different to mix things up a bit. That said, you are probably thinking, Yam Baby... WHAT? Well, I was given a very dilapidated and scary looking doll by my brother that was so weird, old and creepy that his husband wouldn't allow it in the house any longer. Apparently it was dubbed Yam Baby by a friend of theirs because of its odd and oblong head.
So, I wanted to make something out of this doll that was inspired by it, but that would take on many different new and less scary faces. In this particular piece, I did make a nod to the creepy in both name and sanguine splattering, but I feel that it has an element of hope due to the fact that the center light emerging and the deeper tones fading into the darkness.
Feathered Orchid | Envy
During our trip to Pittsburgh, we went to Phipps Conservatory and it was as impressive as I remembered it was, despite being under construction. One of the flowers that I photographed was a feathered orchid, I am unsure of the specific species or cultivar as I couldn't find a marker, but it was cool, nevertheless, so I used it as the basis for this piece.
Tetrapanax papyrifer | Big Top
We have Tetrapanax papyrifer, or Rice Paper Plant, growing all over our yard. This particular leaf that was used as the basis for this image, was drying from the heat and began to create a mosaic pattern in the dried areas. I figured that it might create an interesting detailed final piece that was complex and prone to pareidolia.
Poof Seed | Filaments
This piece started as a photo of a single seed with sailing filaments, think a single giant dandelion seed, but from a distant giant dandelion relative, so the form is different, but the same idea — the filaments allow the seed to float. I have no idea what they are called, but I call them poof seeds. I find them every so often in our garden.
Hibiscus | Lime Essence
This started as a photo of a white-flowering Texas Star Hibiscus in our Moon Garden. It was such a beautiful bloom that I had to use it as the basis for one of my pieces. This is the final result.
Jewels Of Opar | Battle Cry
There is a very unusual and very cool plant called Jewels of Opar, or Talinum paniculatum, their tiny pink flowers open in impressive profusion and their seeds, which have an opalescent nature, really do bring jewels to mind, hence the name. I tried using a photo of them for a work on many occasions, but I just had problems getting it to work and look the way that I wanted, so a few weeks back I noticed that they also look really cool in shadow, so I took a photo of that and used it for the piece I am sharing below.
Passiflora | Rainbow
Today there were beautiful white passionflowers blooming all over the front vine, so I decided to us a photo of one of the blossoms for my piece today. I wanted it to be somewhat subtle and bring in some additional colors for interest. Texturally I kept it simple since there is so much detail in the tendrils.
Brugmansia | 12 Brugs
One of my absolutely favorite plants are Brugmansia or Angel's Trumpets. The blooms are delicate, yet bold, fragrant, yet not overpowering and their structure is imposing and architectural. I wanted to use a photo of the flowers in some way, but make it into something different, something that could almost be the basis of a wallpaper or fabric pattern. The following is the result of that effort.
