“Sometimes we forget that the magic we are seeking in our day-to-day lives isn’t waiting for us on a lavish trip. That magic is all around us, all the time. We just have to be willing to pause and take a look around,” Sophia Ahamed.
For me, art is one of those must-haves that is either a planned extravagance, an unexpected steal, something I make. Since I love art and believe in slowly collecting pieces that are meaningful or inspirational, investing in an artist I believe in and building a collection that reveals a story -- all while filling in the blanks in my home with fabulous pieces like Sophia Ahamed's Saturated Flowers.
In Ahamed's ‘Dark Night’ photography series, she is able to merge the lines of reality and imagination through soothing color palettes and natural subjects. I am fascinated with these pieces that feature her love of nature in a project that presents a series of flowers with mesmerizing night skies as their background.
Even though the photography focus on totally natural colors and textures of organic materials it eloquetnly skews fiction and reality into dreamy works that feature seasonal blooms and foliage in their best stage. This is one of my favorite details of her work because I believe there is beauty in all stages of life -- from death to birth. I believe that death is profoundly gorgeous and sensational. Thursd.com claim her images have "a soothing effect and allow the viewer to dive into the deeper recess of the imagination." I think so, too.
Dreamy Flowers Take Center Stage in the Dark Night Photography Series
The artist shoots each element seperately before layering into a new composition that exudes tranquility. This technique deeply resonates with me as I like to separate each variety into separate buckets so that I can see where they are in vibrancy and in life stage. From there, I pull them together into a design that I believe is more peaceful than if they were maintained in a same stem, same variety design.
To explain this in a nutshell, in all honesty, a same stem design would be more natural. They would all come from the same part of the world, or same part of a farm and be at the same life stage. Right? But, by positioning genuine blooms and branches into a fabricated design I am mixing say, a rare Japanese anthurium imported at an opposing season than my own, a fine rose from an Ecuadorian farm harvested and shipped at it's peak, an American Grown Protea with some overgrown blueberry bush clipped out of my yard. A fabricated context isn't natural at all but I think with separation and placement I can achieve a certain peacefulness that it's actually more awe-inspiring and peaceful than a same stem bunch.
“We associate colour with how we perceive the world around us, memories, and emotion,” Ahamed says, “Often at times, these elements can act as well as a gentle escape into something more soothing.”
These photographs use the deep yellows and oranges of fall with the thin petals of spring time flowers although both are at their seasonal peak this is unrealistic. And the tiny fence of a moon in the distance with red and pink floral clusters under cloudy, blue skies is absolutely false. But, it looks so dreamy!
Seeded In Personal Grief and Loss
The artist, Sophia Ahamed, says that the Dark Night photography series is based on personal grief and loss. I think you can see this in the melancholy if you are looking. From sadness and loss, depth and knowing comes creating stages and seasons of life and evolvement. “If I’ve learned anything on this journey, from a personal lens,” says Sophia Ahamed, “it’s that there’s a lot to come from doing difficult things and going through difficult things.”
You can find more information about the artist on her website or view more of the photographs from the Dark Night series on her Instagram page. If you like to support contemporary art and are passionate about nature and sustainability and meaning and intention, you may enjoy items in our shop or taking a workshop to learn how to bring more beauty into your life through floral and botanical arranging.