I am creating two artworks during my AA2A residency
Title of wooden sculpture - Brink. (in working progress)
Ceramic installation, Title - ‘Nude.’ To make the clay model I first cut out a slightly domed shape out of polystyrene and then covered it with clay. This is so I don’t have to use so much clay and I have a solid shape to work from. By studying the flower head up close I wanted to add as much detail as possible.
I have known about the patterns the florets make up within the daisy or sunflower head (they belong to the same family). They follow the Fibonacci sequence, or 1, 2, 3, 5,8,13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144. Each number in the sequence, is the sum of the previous two numbers. My flower head needed to show the spirals that are generated from this sequence. So now with the maths over, the clay modelling can start.
The picture of the sunflower shows the Fibonacci sequence. The outer ring of the flowers has opened and these are known as ‘florets’. Each one of these florets becomes a seed. These seeds are dispersed and you are left with the flower head. You could say we are getting to the skeleton of the flower now, with lots of little craters that once held a seed. Notice the little nipple and stem at the base of the crater – this holds in the flower and seed while they are developing and is the food and water tube from the main plant. Within this tube there are two holes into the flower head.
Such a great feeling to see the kiln filled with my earthenware seed heads.
