A Bouquet of Roses

This work is a bouquet of roses held in place by hand with my nails done by myself in order to complement them, or at least that is what I want it to seem like when you first look at it. On closer inspection, I want the viewer to notice that one of the roses looks a little different, and to suddenly see that indeed, one of the roses is painted on my hand, which is painted black everywhere else to blend with the black fabric of the background. 

I enjoyed experimenting with impermanence of working on something I knew I would be washing away once it was complete, and working on a surface that is so different from a canvas. I originally attempted to paint the rose as closely to the original as I could, but while doing that I considered what was being added by duplicating what was already there so closely, and why my painting was better than leaving the rose on the stem would be. When I couldn’t answer this question, I started again and painted the rose in a more painterly style, making it more stylized and tipping the painted rose in white and fading to a deeper red rather than working with just the colours of the original. 

The play between the real, or natural and the painted artificial is another aspect I wanted to contrast, experiencing first one and then the other. 

Summer 2012