Blue Hostas

Abstract botanical art has always been compelling to me. I think this is because it hovers somewhere between recognition and invention. I love the unique and unusual because I am so curious and exploratory but I also love the familiar and normative to stabilize and calm me. Natural leaf forms ground me, but in this new piece the shifts in color, scale, and symmetry create a subtle dissonance that really holds my attention! My royal blue and green hosta leaves feel “fake” yet believable — they are rooted in nature’s logic but I have pushed them into something slightly “off” and uncanny. I think that tension is the allure. I want to make more like this! Maybe a series. Many of my pieces in the past have involved leaves — I enjoy utilizing leaves in my art because they carry intuitive, archetypal rhythms and as such they don’t need much explanation. However, this “strange” palette in this new piece introduces a new kind of balance in my art: the green signals life and familiarity while the blue introduces mood and distance. The result is a piece of artwork that feels alive, strange, and quietly mesmerizing.