Bloom 4.0 is the next progression in the Bloom series that started taking form in 2009. I’ve always thought of Bloom as my ‘urban foliage’ idea…my ‘street flowers.’ The squared blooms are graphic and angular, belonging as much to the built environment as to the natural world. Glass rods add a strong linear element opposite the green leaf forms. If I had the nerve, they’d be my version of Invader, tiny pops of color and life installed on urban canvases. I settled for a temporary installation, Modern Ruins, to explore the effect of tiny Blooms against monumental urban wastelands.
A progression in technique (layering of glass explored in Trace 2.1) and concept (finding beauty and information in the structure and geometry of the built environment in Scan 5.1) brings me to Bloom 4.0 which combines two core ideas: finding beauty and information in unexpected places and connecting organic curves and rhythm of the natural world with the geometries of the urban environment. The second prototype in the Bloom 4.0 series features an industrial orange against grayscale foliage.
Abstracted botanical forms are layered with mechanical and structural elements. The negative space from a bicycle sprocket forms the orange 'bloom’ and linear elements in glass stringer refer to structure and support. The organic forms are realized in grayscale, suggesting the overlooked but ever-present and powerfully regenerative natural context for the urban world. Living in urbanized settings requires new ways of seeing and connecting with nature.
