Flowering Princes & Princesses Series

Ian MacKinnon - Flowering Prince (Click photographs for larger images)

April Hava Shenkman - Flowering Princess (Click photographs for larger images)

In honor of the Flowering Princes and Princesses within us (see last weeks post), I present a few of the first examples of an ongoing series. It starts by photographing some of my artistic friend/peers and then over 5 panels creating a sequence where flowers emerge that create some kind of pattern that has to do with each artist. I look forward to creating some more works for this series and exploring its evolution. They take a lot more out of me than I initially imagined (to separate each individual flower is very labor intensive), but worth the investment of time to watch the creative blossoms unfurl to life -  Hope you enjoy!

For April Hava Shenkman, we discussed using "party bouquet" flowers and morning glories (both her favorite kinds). Because April (profiled in a blog post last month) uses the theme of parties in her Happy Happy show and performances, I thought creating streamers of flowers photographed from party bouquets would be appropriate. Additionally, her hair is so unique and so I thought little morning glory buds popping out would be fun. She mixes curious, wistful, classy, and exhuberant poses - just like her performances.

For Ian MacKinnon, I thought creating a rainbow of flowers would be a great representation; he identifies as a Gay-Centered Performance Artist. His stage performances and wardrobe are usually very colorful with themes of empowerment, individuality and bold self-expression. But Ian is also very rooted in psychology, in sincerity, and his works often contain educational material or meaningful messages. So I wanted to start with a very blank, white canvas, and in rushes this festive explosion of color at first quite daunting and then shaped by Ian, which he has a very spiritual pose and then a flamboyant one.

The series started with Nathalie Broizat in December. Her series utilized a single red rose falling down from the sky and repeated over and over until it creates a pattern not unlike red polka-dots, which is a signature image and look in many of Nathalie's performance pieces. Additionally the red rose was photographed from the garden of her very talented fiance, Jean-Paul Monsche, so there was an additionally nice connection. It's a very restricted color palette, which I feel lends an elegant touch, befitting of the beautiful Nathalie.

MORE FLOWERINGS TO COME!

Jason