Anne ten Donkelaar incorporates nature into her art, quite literally. Her delicate collages are composed of both paper images and actual specimens from her garden. Those include flowers and the occasional butterfly, preserved under glass.
Based in Utrecht, the Nederlanders, ten Donkelaar collects her material from a variety of sources: the flowers she grows in her garden, second-hand picture books, and butterflies from the botanical garden in Utrecht. The materials themselves inform her final art piece. By protecting these pieces under glass, she gives them a second life, hoping to inspire people to make up their own stories about them.
“A damaged butterfly, a broken twig, a bumblebee, some strangely grown weeds: I find all these unique discoveries in my path and then take them home to my studio,” she writes on her website. “Here, I take my time to explore the objects and try to work out how I can show each one to its best advantage.”
“I hope it gives joy and that it inspires,” she added in an interview with Create Magazine. A worthy cause, if any.
