The petals, branches and leaves she picked up on the road made everyone cry.

There is a flower studio in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where withered flowers and dead insects continue to survive in another way. And the person who injects new life into them is called Anne Ten Donkelaar.

The petals, branches and leaves picked up on the road, and the remains of insects and butterflies that died naturally in zoos or botanical gardens all have a different meaning in Anne's hands. In her own unique way, she mixed with the paper-cut of flowers collected in her life, cutting, collage and composition carefully, the decay and withering of life can also be so shining.

Flower Constructions

Anne used to study industrial design, and her job is to design flower patterns and embroidery for pillows, so the flowers and plants always inspire her. She often nails them on inspirational pages to observe the whole composition and shape. Later, Anne found that the layout she used to inspire herself was more interesting than simple flower embroidery, so she devoted herself to flower collage, which was the starting point of her work Flower Constructions.

The Netherlands is a well-organized city, punctuality and planning in advance is the habit of the Dutch. Anne likes to ride a bike around the Netherlands, but she also yearns for wild nature, and her creative inspiration comes more from the desire to travel to a foreign country, or the fantasy of other planets. For example, imagine a planet full of plants and flowers.

Life is the source of art, she will often go for a walk in nature, go to some jewelry shops, studios, gardening markets and so on for inspiration.

Learn the technique of Yin carving. Anne said she was not familiar with the technology before, but was curious about how to use it. So she did a small experiment: press the flowers into the machine, and finally the color falls off from the flowers, leaving a little pigment and flower structure on the paper. The result surprised her very much.

Anne said that the most attractive part of the flower collage is that the work looks like it is completely from nature, but in fact the whole process is almost entirely handmade by humans.

For Anne, being soothing is the most meaningful part of a work. A guest once called her after her beloved funeral and asked her to make a flower painting for the funeral. Anne dried the flowers, made scaffolds and structures, and surrounded them in a covered frame. When she missed the dead, she could lift the small door and look at the flowers inside. When receiving this work produced by Anne, the guests were very happy, and their emotions and feelings for the deceased gave this work a completely different and deeper meaning.

In Anne's mind, the ideal life is to find a country life near the sea in a warm country, with a big garden full of flowers and fruits.

Broken Butterflies

Inject vitality into the withered life, repair the incomplete life, in the heart of Anne, this is also a "shining" thing!

Flowers, stems and slender needles build colorful gardens, while the effect of light and shadow makes the whole flower painting more three-dimensional, with a sense of vitality.

The structure of the flower is a three-dimensional collage embossed and engraved picture. Each element is carefully placed in the picture to produce depth. This is a space full of fantasy flowers.

Imagine a big explosion in which the seeds of flowers are thrown into space like fireworks. What will happen? The new flowers evolve and bloom like nebulae. These landscapes are full of space, as if you can get through it.

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