Rose Series

This series includes sculptures and inkjet prints that include images of roses or rose petals. The rose is a pervasive image in life, literature, visual art, songs and film. It can signify everything from love to war, from romance to death, from celebration to mourning and therefore seems a perfect image to use when examining one's journey through life. Historically it appears in Roman and Greek legends. According to Greek legend, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, created the rose. White roses were said to have sprung from the sea foam, which surrounded her as she rose up out of the sea. Botticelli in his famous painting, The Birth of Venus, later depicted this. The rose is referred to by many other artists and writers. Shakespeare’s Juliet says to Romeo, “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Gertrude Stein also questioning the essence of life wrote, “A rose is a rose is a rose”. Georgia O’Keefe, Renoir, Manet and Van Gogh to name a few have painted the rose. There have been the movies The Rose Tattoo and The Purple Rose of Cairo.

 

Most of the sculptures are composed of a combination of industrial and domestic materials and some incorporate inkjet prints on their surfaces. These sculptures are most often interactive if not necessarily functional in a traditional sense. Some of the sculptures can be leaned against. Yet others can be walked through or walked into. In this way, the visitor experiences the work physically as well as visually. The inkjet prints examine the same ideas in a different medium.