Bloom where you're planted...
Hello.
I’m sure the irony is not lost on us all, that Spring may be getting ready to show her face and here we all are, stuck indoors. Luckily blossom season in Scotland is always a couple of weeks later than the rest of the country. So hopefully we will still catch some when we are allowed to go back out again.
In the meantime, let’s look at some paper flowers. Calling these creations from Marianne Eriksen Scott-Hansen seems like a massive understatement. These are blooms beyond your imagination.
If I could have a room filled with these I would surely feel a whole lot happier staying indoors.
Paper artist, Marianne Eriksen Scott-Hansen, lives in Denmark where she constructs enormous bouquets of tissue paper blossoms featuring countless petals and leaves in colour-coordinated bunches. Her process involves cutting through 50 to 60 layers of papers at a time to create her delicate and larger than life flowers.
Each piece is crafted by hand and without patterns or templates, making every petal, stem, and bit of pollen unique.
Much of Scott-Hansen’s work reflects her childhood in the countryside, anchoring her style in nature and Danish folk art. Heavily rooted in craft, the artist says she works both artistically and intuitively. “It’s all in the hands so to speak. I want to enter into a dialogue with the material. Work my way into it. Exploring rather than ‘mere’ re-working and investigation. (Seeing) how far can you ‘stretch’ paper.” She enjoys using the same material to create various textures, contrasting durable, rough wood and delicate petals.
Thrift, hard work, and industry are required as well, in order for my artworks to grow into something other than the tissue they were. Something must be small before it can be big, humble before it can be flashy—it is the contrast of nature that carries opulence within it and triggers our imagination. In my reworking, the tissue paper roots of the triffid may also become that of the rose.
Stay safe and well lovely people.
Queen Marie
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