A Bed of Flowers and Love

Flower Daybed
Metal Rod, Sheet Metal, Upholstery, Plants, Flower Printed Cotton

I alway wanted someone to bring me flowers for no reason. They would tell me they were thinking of me or they thought that it would make me feel better. A bundle of flowers without obligation or prompt. Most bouquets I have been given were for a more practical reason, a performance, a birthday, a graduation. I don’t want to keep waiting for someone to bring me flowers, instead I’m getting my own.

This project came from the feeling of wanting love but wanting to be alone. Two things that seemingly contradict each other. I wanted to make a space where these feelings can exist together. This conversation can very easily veer into cheesy ideas of self-love and blog posts saying you should take yourself out to dinner and while there is validity in this, I believe it extends further. It is being confused with what you want and attempting to find a place in between. To want love from another or to be with yourself. Whether or not to seek out flowers or to grow them on your own.

I had a book as a child called Flower Children. It has illustrations of people, mostly children, as flowers with poems for each. As a kid I would look through the pictures picking my favorites and admiring the dresses. I loved this book. It was a visceral love that I never fully understood. My mom recently sent it to me and for the first time ever I read the foreward. I found that my love for this book was designed into it. The artist attempted to “show kinship of children and flowers, and it is their hope that the little ones whose hands this volume comes will find herein the proof that their knowledge of what flowers really are is true and that their love for the friendly blossoms is returned many-fold”(Elizabeth Gordon). I used to this book as a guide for how to treat my piece. I wanted to make something that achieved a similar goal

Flowers and love go hand in hand, this part came easily. The hard part was to figure out what form it would take. I initially thought of a light or an arch. But I wanted something intimate and for one, with a set mode interaction. The idea of a bed came quickly after these decisions. I wanted my flowers to live with the bed and feel like an integral part. Going back to my childhood fantasies, I always wanted a canopy bed. I think many kids did. It was a very magical and romantic object, often seen in princess movies. A canopy bed with flowers would take this childhood fantasy and bring it into my reality, and this was incredibly exciting. My form for the bed came from a series of gestural drawings. I would bring in the practical, figuring out the dimensions I need and then sketch the curves and bend the metal. I relied on my previous metalworking knowledge to allow me to use intuiton while building.

For this piece I had to tend my flowers. I’ve struggled with taking care of plants in the past. I neglect them, leave them thirsty, and don’t give them a lot of sun. I realize I also do this with myself. I had to take care of the flowers I had as well as gather petals and blooms for my fabric. I believe having both of these actions in my process felt as a further incorporating the joy from seeking and gathering love, into a place of solitary tending of love. For this project I realized that to change my practice, I had to change the way I go through the world. I found moments of joy in welding large curves, hammering flower petals into fabric, and cranking the sheet metal roller. I felt like I was making something that would love me back.