Cordyline

About this work:

This work is my investigation of the Hawaiian Ti plant (Cordyline Fruticosa), a plant which drew my focus due to its intensely-colored leaves. Each leaf starts as a brilliant pink-magenta shoot and then grows to be up to two feet long with a complex green-violet interior that expands from the base as the leaf matures, pushing the pink outwards towards the periphery. Fascinated by the leaves as they developed, I sought to capture not just a singular view of the plant but the experience of it. To that end, I created this work across two dimensional panels to represent different stages in the growth of the leaves; I put a curved edge on the larger panel, as if it is a leaf curling upwards; and I chose a more expressive approach to painting them, bringing an increased sense of movement to the work, as if capturing the rustle of the leaves in a soft summer breeze. The final result is that as viewers move around it, the work produces a cinematic experience of the life and growth of a cordyline.