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'Summer Days' 🧵
I wanted to talk about the background of the piece that is dropping tomorrow @noble_gallery.
And the imspiration and thought behind my work in general.
So here goes...
1, Eroticism is not the main objective when creating my work.
Each element within the piece has a deep meaning associated to it and has been selected, composed, reworked and reimagined.
2, Though as to not disturb the connection or viewers initial interpretation, which IS the main objective overall, I've yet to talk so in depth publicly about my own meaning unless asked by collectors in conversation.
3, So what does the work mean?
Is it just an aesthetic?
No. It is not.
Though it is an aesthetic that is instantly recognisable as my work. A drømsjel piece.
And there is a reason for the aesthetic.
Predominantly I use vintage sources, models, flowers, natural and scientific photographical or illustration elements as base sources for the piece.

The lighting, grain of paper is all very important to the overall work & I program all my paint brushes myself to digitally paint.
5, Illustrate and recreate the texture once recolorisation and composition is finalised.

I can spend days if not weeks creating a piece, with every detail thought on, until it's amalgamated to a work that I feel and no longer see.
6, This base imagery is always sourced from the time period between the 1950s and 1980s. The time period of the feminist and sexual liberation movement which has impacted much of western culture and society for the better.
Tackling subjects such as censorship, ownership,sexuality patriarchal ideals & societal norms of family,freedom, gender roles.
Evolving & changing, Art, Music, Literature, Politics, Science, Film, Media, Advertising, Health, well, pretty much everything. A revolution in thought.
8, An evolution of western culture.

This time period absolutely fascinates me.

So back to the 'Summer Days'... how does this relate?
9,I celebrate this movement,this time period, through my celebration of women & the female body with flowers or natural & scientific elements depicting the evolution of thought, which challenges & interrupts the male gaze of the original source imagery. Challenging censorship.
10, In Summer Days like many of my works the flowers replacing the heads depict the reach for a higher state of consciousness. A power of nature, of ideas, growing and melting over the body. An energy beyond our control.
11,Each flower selected has also been selected for the piece because of its meaning.

'Summer Days' flowers has many included, however I'll focus on the following as an example as to why I choose the flowers for my works very carefully. Peonies, Daffodils, Cosmos, and Clematis.
12, Peonies were chosen for the head, as one meaning for them is attributed to bashfulness, because legend had it that nymphs would hide their naked forms by turning into peonies.
13, As the model is also in water, this could be interpreted as somewhat of a nymph, nymphs were also depicted as enticing men to their downfall. Which I like in some beauty vs danger balance of composition / conceptual way. Interruption of the male gaze.
14, Daffodils mean, rebirth and new beginnings. Usually for Spring, yet in the Summer everything is in full bloom, we are at our most wild and free in the Summer.

Cosmos flowers are associated with simplicity joy and beauty yet also are a symbol of order, harmony, and balance.
15, I like to create this balance in my work, chaos and control, beautiful and grotesque, geometric and natural.

With including this flower I found the simplicity of not over doing it with geometric lines or additional elements like in some of my other works,
but creating the balance needed of the finer details in including it as a symbol in the flower head itself.

Finally clematis, Clematis flower meanings include mental acuity, wisdom, aspiration, travel, and mischief. A flower head bouquet which combines all of mind, over matter.
over body, over time.
Reaching for the higher state of consciousness whether we get there through thought or dreams, of moments, all are feelings.
18, All my works have that transmutational energy entwined. Whether sexual or not.The moments that escape us.That we can not control.Where we are free. Where we just feel.
That's the main objective of my work here in Summer Days. 
Beyond what you see.
But what you feel.
Free.
19, Thanks for reading through. With my work you collect an aesthetic with meaning but it is your own interpretation & connection to the work that is most important & of most value to me

Thanks to Noble Gallery for the opportunity to create Summer Days for card holders!
Pierre
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