Can we really draw without interpreting? How do our personal relationships with plants influence what we see and how we render it? And what might we gain if we allow room for expression within realism—treating observation as an active, evolving dialogue rather than a neutral recording?
Hi Zoe,
I agree with you. Even if we think we are being "objective" or "neutral," I think part of our experience and our personalities is woven into our work. In fact, to me, that is what gives work beauty and life. Otherwise AI could do it!
I think that when we see how an artist is interpreting a plant, we learn about the plant AND the artist.
Sonja
I agree with you. Even if we think we are being "objective" or "neutral," I think part of our experience and our personalities is woven into our work. In fact, to me, that is what gives work beauty and life. Otherwise AI could do it!
I think that when we see how an artist is interpreting a plant, we learn about the plant AND the artist.
Sonja
How true!
Hi Zoe, these are such stimulating questions -- 0ne of the things I've found so fascinating about studying botanical illustration as a relative newbie, is how it informs my biological observation. When, as a biologist decades ago, I first learned to use visual techniques like drawing, graphing, photograph, and (primitive) videography, my main purpose was to capture "data", but as all scientists learn, the act of capturing data (visually or using any of the senses) always has an effect on the data. Zoe, I love the way you put it, "treating observation as an active, evolving dialogue rather than as a neutral recording." That is so very true for me -- as I try to capture something visually, I often observe aspects of the specimen that I didn't observe before and had not previously entered into my hypothesis development. And of course, there is the interpretation of beauty and other, transcendental, qualities. I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I read up on an exhibit at MOMA of Hilma af Klint's watercolors of plants that intentionally incorporate her spiritualism. The watercolors are also quite accurate depictions of the plants.