Can broken flowers still be alive and beautiful? In addition to magicians, artists have the magic to give flowers a second life. The Dutch artist Anne ten Donkelaar can turn flowers into brilliant artworks with her imagination and artistic skills.
Anne specializes in creating dreamy artworks inspired by flowers. She studied 3D product design at art school, and joined the design industry after graduation. When designing an embroidered pillow, Anne found a greater interest in artistic creation with more freedom, so she has gradually shifted from design to floral creation.
The flowers in Anne’s works come from her own small garden. In addition to composition, color, and shape, she explores multiple mediums. For instance, she combines flowers with stickers and water. Anne makes the flowers that have left the soil still lively and multifarious.
“When the time comes, my intuition will remind me: the work has been completed. I hope the audience can get joy and inspiration from my creations.”
In the Underwater Ballet series, Anne, as a choreographer, has choreographed an intoxicating floating ballet with bright flowers and sparkling bubbles. The buoyancy of the water makes the flowers float upright in the water, just like a graceful woman.
Anne has cleverly used gravity and the buoyancy of water. The flowers are pulled by colorful strings, and the metal decorations at the bottom are like the ballet dancers’ toes, allowing the flowers, which are as light as a feather, to stand stably in the water.
In the Floating Garden series, flowers show a different feel: stillness and strength. Anne, who loves flowers with slender stems, has removed the leaves, and left the branches clean and slender for creation. Bouquets of different colors and shapes are suspended by strings, showing meandering branches and scattered petals. The hung flowers are reminiscent of crib mobiles, giving a romantic and childlike feel.
In the Flower Constructions series, viewers can enjoy exquisite 3D floral paintings. Anne created this series thinking, “What if a big bang sends flower seeds into outer space?” Old seeds may evolve into new ones in the space soil, and an unprecedented flower planet may appear after many years.
These works are composed of 2D pressed real flowers and cut floral pictures that are meticulously fixed onto the board by needles. The layered composition, stacked colors, and looming light and shadows behind the petals give the flat elements a sense of space and three-dimensionality.
