Petals, branches and leaves picked up on the road, she turned them into works that move everyone to tears

There is a floral art studio in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where withered flowers and departed insects continue to live on in another way.

And the person who breathes new life into them is Anne Ten Donkelaar.

Petals, branches and leaves picked up on the road, and the remains of insects and butterflies that died naturally in zoos or botanical gardens, all take on a different meaning in Anne's hands. In her own unique way, mixing in paper-cut flowers collected from daily life, she carefully cuts, collages and composes,decay and withering can actually shine so brightly.

? Flower Constructions

Anne studied industrial design, and her job was designing floral patterns and embroidery for cushions, so flowers and plants have always inspired her. She often pins them onto inspiration boards, observing the overall composition and shapes.

Later, Anne found that the boards she used for inspiration were actually more interesting than plain flower embroidery, so she threw herself into flower collage creation, which was also the starting point of her work Flower Constructions.

The Netherlands is a country where everything is orderly, and punctuality and planning ahead are Dutch habits.

Anne likes to ride her bicycle around the Netherlands freely, but she also longs for wild nature,Her creative inspiration comes more from a longing for exotic travel, or fantasies about other planets.For example, an imagined planet covered with all kinds of plants and flowers.

Life is the source of art. She often takes walks in nature, visits accessory shops, art studios, gardening markets and so on to look for inspiration.

Learning the technique of sunken carving. Anne said that she was not familiar with this technique before, but was very curious about how to use it. So she did a little experiment:pressing flowers into the machine, and in the end the color fell away from the flowers, leaving some pigment and the flower structure on the paper. This result surprised her greatly.

Anne said that the most fascinating part of flower collage for her is that the finished works look as if they come entirely from nature, but in fact the whole process is almost entirely handmade by humans.

For Anne, being able to soothe people's hearts is the most meaningful part of a work.

A client once called her after the funeral of a beloved one, asking her to make a flower work for the funeral.

Anne dried the flowers in the shade, made supports and structures, and placed them around inside a frame with a door flap, so that when she missed the deceased, she could lift that little door and look at the flowers inside.

When receiving this work made by Anne, the client was very happy,The client's emotions and feelings for the deceased gave this work a completely different and deeper meaning.

In Anne's heart, the most ideal life is:In a warm country, find a rural place near the sea to live, with a big garden full of flowers and fruit.

?Broken Butterflies

Breathing vitality into lives that have already withered, repairing broken lives, in Anne's heart, this is also a "shining" thing!

Flowers, dried stems and slender needles build colorful gardens one after another, and the effect of light and shadow makes the whole flower-and-grass picture more three-dimensional, with a sense of thriving vitality.

The structure of the flowers is a three-dimensional collage of pressed flowers and carved flower images. Each element is carefully placed in the picture to create depth.This is a fantasy-filled universe of flowers.

Imagine a big bang, with flower seeds thrown into space like fireworks. What would happen? Newly growing flowers evolve and bloom like nebulae.These landscapes are full of a sense of space, and you feel as if you can pass through them.