My graduate collection ‘Strange By Nature’ explores to what extent organic, natural forms can be combined with a hyper-synthetic aesthetic. My love of nature, especially botany has inspired my creativity from an early age. However, with time my work has become less concerned with replicating sources figuratively. Instead, I have been increasingly interested in abstraction and distortion.

With the climate crisis intensifying there is now a long-established discourse surrounding what we design, make, consume, and waste. As a result, some materials such as plastics have been villainised. This gave me the idea of creating an ironic and extreme juxtaposition; taking a natural object and making it appear as man-made/faux and synthetic as possible. The pieces in this collection appear almost unrelated to the natural forms which provided initial inspiration. Instead, an ethereal, distant organicism is retained and combined with a contemporary cleanness.

My process of abstraction was aided by a diverse source of inspiration, namely science fiction, graffiti, makeup, and fashion. This has resulted in the creation of a collection which is bold, bright and fantastical. Using spray paints has allowed me to create subtle gradients and blends in a mix of extremely artificial almost saccharine shades. The slightly edible appearance which is vaguely reminiscent of sweets adds to the playful appearance of the pieces and is something I want to explore going forward.