Week 14 - Episode 77 - A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

Sometimes a rose is just a rose, as Gertrude Stein famously remarked.

A flower just a flower.

That’s what American painter Georgia O’Keeffe claimed about her flower paintings, despite Alfred Stieglitz’ attempts to market them as symbolic.

They are paintings of…flowers. What you see in them is on you.

And that’s yet another thing to love about flowers. They can become a canvas for our own projections.

This weekend, create your own flower abstracts.

Grab a macro lens (you can get cheap clip-ons for your smartphone if you don’t have one yet) and dive into the heart of flowers.

Photograph them, sketch them, crayon them, paint them…and leave it to us to interpret their meaning.

Share your flowers using the hashtag #kramerseye on Instagram or Twitter.

Listen to today’s podcast

Week 14 - Episode 76 - Flowers of life and death

According to a late-Hellenic legend, the lily was born of the milk that Juno spilled on the ground while feeding baby Hercules.

The Romans named it ‘the rose of Juno’ and many passages in the Old Testament attribute qualities of fertility and spiritual transformation to this particular flower.

No wonder then that in Christian iconography it took on the meaning of chastity and purity - and the attribute of the virgin Mary.

In fact, it is rather rare to find an Annunciation scene which doesn’t feature a white lily somewhere. And if we are to believe the Golden Legend, lilies and roses also sprouted inside Mary’s vacated tomb.

The Coronation of the Virgin (lower half), 1502-1504 , Raphael, Pinacoteca of the Vatican Museums, Rome.

Lilies stand for purity, innocence, fertility and the beginning of new life.

Poppies mean quite the opposite.

Initially associated with sleep (drug induced or natural), they took on the meaning of a sleep more eternal: death.

Poppies, because of their intense redness, were later absorbed into Christian doctrine to symbolise the Passion of Christ. Raphael’s ‘Madonna of the Meadow’ alludes to this unhappy ending of the story by placing some red poppies behind the peaceful scene of Madonna with Christ and John the baptist.

Madonna of the Meadow, 1506, Raphael, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

After the devastation of the first World War they became commemorative flowers for the fallen military, inspired by this famous poem by John McCrea:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
    Between the crosses, row on row,
  That mark our place; and in the sky
  The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
  Loved and were loved, and now we lie
      In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
  The torch; be yours to hold it high.
  If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
      In Flanders fields.

Today, look for these two opposites.

Lilies and poppies. Symbols of life and death, of birth and sacrifice.

Dwell through online collections or visit your local museum. Notice how these two flowers are used to add extra layers to the stories told in paintings.

Capture your favourite examples, and share them on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #kramerseye.

Listen to today’s podcast

Week 14 - Episode 75 - Floral Patterns

Living flowers are delightful, but not always a viable option.

So what’s a flower-lover to do?

Decorate.

Let flowers adorn objects you use in daily life - and you can enjoy them whatever the season.

Rugs, vases, cups, kimonos: most things can be - and have been - decorated with floral patterns.

In Asian cultures, the chosen flower usually has an specific meaning. The Japanese Imperial seat is referred to as the Chrysanthemum Throne and the Imperial crest is a stylised chrysanthemum blossom.

Originally introduced from China, the chrysanthemum came to Japan with a legend about longevity: the story of a town whose residents all lived to over 100 years old. The water they drank was supplied by a mountain spring surrounded by chrysanthemums.

Woman’s kimono, Japan, anonymous, 1920 - 1940, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

In Western Europe, flowers were used for pleasing patterns - and to dress to impress, as this stunning 18th century jacket exemplifies.

Woman’s Jacket, chintz, anonymous, 1750, Hindeloopen, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Floral patterns date back to the Egyptians, and their omnipresence today is a testament to the power of the flower.

We love them. We want them. We wear them.

Today, look for decorative flower patterns.

On paper, fabric, plastic.

In stone, woord or glass.

Wherever and whenever you spot them, capture those flower patterns And do share them, using the hashtag #kramerseye on Twitter or Instagram.

Listen to today’s podcast

Week 14 - Episode 74 - Floral Characters

In the history of art, the flower has moved from symbolic and decorative to, with some modern artists, a complete character in itself.

A persona, an identity.

A living being to be looked at, studied, admired, understood.

Van Gogh’s Sunflowers are an early example.

These crazy golden flowers are alive and unique. They cannot be replaced by any other sunflower - the picture wouldn’t remain the same.

Van Gogh’s Sunflowers have character.

Since then, many modern artists have seen and depicted flowers as persona, including photographers Irving Penn and Robert Mapplethorpe.

In the latter’s ‘Double Jack in the Pulpit’ we see two flowers who are no longer talking to each other.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Double Jack-in-the-Pulpit, 1988, ©Robert Mapplethorpe

Penn’s portrait of a dying poppy, ‘Poppy: showgirl’ depicts a beautiful demise.

Irving Penn, Poppy: Showgirl, London, 1968 - © Condé Nast Publications, Inc.

Today, try to see flowers as irreplaceable, unique living beings. And capture them in this way.

Share your flower portraits using the hashtag #kramerseye on Twitter or Instagram

Listen to today’s podcast