botanical surrealism

My office at work is stacked high with tears from magazines, to the point that at times it seems like I might be swallowed up by them. So I purge and organize and restack every couple of months, just to stay ahead of it all. Some images I keep for years, moving them from one pile to the next because I don't exactly know what to do with them but I just can't bring myself to toss them either. They've just captured my heart for some reason.

This was the case with the 2002 tear above. The work is by the artist L. C. Armstrong, who uses bomb fuses to scorch the canvas and create the stems for the exotic flowers she depicts. I love the mix of the randomness of the burns, the classical, finessed landscapes rendered in surreal colors that are then layered with these bold, almost photorealistic flowers. The artist talks about her use of bomb fuses to "find a way to make a line that has content because of the way it was made". Not only are the images themselves layered but so to is the meaning of line, paint and color. I love the clash of influences. I love the tension. It's all very provocative and intiguing.