TELL ME YOUR NAME
Artist Brandy Kraft is not only re-imagining flowers but re-inventing new species of flora, com- plete with new mash-up names in Latin. The resulting in works are in a class of their own.
Kraftia didymum, Hybrids No. 23” Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 100 x 120
Year: 2019
La Botanica: How did the idea of hybrid plants come about?
Brandy Kraft: When I started painting hybrid flowers I became obsessed. I was painting them constantly- compulsively. I was identi- fying with the flowers on a personal level and saw myself in them. Then one day I couldn’t see myself anymore. I was confused and frustrated for a long time until I realized that I had to make a completely new flower.
LB: Who were your predecessors?
BK: I don’t know of any other artists who have invented species of flowers and named them as I am doing now but I do admire a ton of artists and scientists who have contributed to the worlds of botanical art and botany. A few are for example: Carl Linnaeus, Elizabeth Blackwell, Marianne North, Rachel Ruysch.
LB:Your botanical watercolors are a won- derful addition to the old botanical atlases of plants, and almost documented evidence of the existence of them, which then appear in an oil painting version. How did you come up with the idea of creating catalogs and giving them names in Latin, as if they really exist?
BK: Traditionally, royalty or large estates would commission artists to take an inventory and compile a catalog of all of the flowers
and plants in their gardens. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a few antique versions in real life and they are magnificent. They are a huge inspiration to me. I absolutely love that within the field of botany specifically, art and science not only work together but enhance one another. Even though my flowers don’t really exist, I feel like cataloging them into my own hybrid Florilegium somehow anchors them into reality.
Orcheastrum cultriformis, Hybrid No. 25
Medium: Watercolor on pape
Size: 80 x 100cm
Leucothurmeria acanthostull, Hybrid No. 21
Medium: Watercolor on paper Size: 30 x 40cm
Year: 2019
Eugenia begoniscus, Hybrid No. 24
Medium: Watercolor on paper
Size: 30 x 40cYear: 2019
LB: You work a lot in museums, making copies or partial copies of old paintings. Why is this so important in your work?
BK: I have worked in the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art in New York City. In late 2016
I was accepted into a program which allows professionals to copy master works inside the museum. It was an incredible experience. I chose to paint a painting by Henri Fantin-La- tour and it made me realize that I don’t know how to paint at all! Haha, no, well not really. But I did feel totally inept a lot of the time. I think as an artist you need to continually push yourself to see, experience, and learn new things and for me, painting a Fantin-Latour was one of these intentional challenges. I paint in a completely different style and have an entirely different approach to painting than he did so trying to emulate his style and tech- nique was extremely difficult. It was also hard to feel like I was painting a shitty painting in front of all the guests in the museum but I also had to remember that I can be my own worst critic. All of the guests were super nice!
Phragmarundata gotemburgis Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 30 x 80cm
Year: 2019
LB: Why are hybrids better than regular flowers?
BK: I think nature is incredible and I don’t think that anything I could make would be better than any of the wondrous things that exist already. But I do hope to make people stop and wonder. I feel like so much of the earth’s awe-inspiring nature is already over- looked and taken for granted. I am hoping to help restore a little of the mystery, fascination and reverence nature deserves.
The name of this flower comes from three parts of different flower names Kraft used to create it:
Arundina graminifolia- purple orchid Coelogyne pandurata- green orchid (face) Phragmipedium grande- long hair orchid Gothenburg- city where the new hybrid flower was created
New name - “Phragmarundata gotemburgis” This hybrid flower was created on the grounds of the Gothenburg Botanical Gar- den and is made up of several different species from their hybrid orchid collection.
Eugenia begoniscus, Hybrid No. 24
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 80 x 100cm
Year: 2019
Orcheastrum cultriformis, Hybrid No. 25
Medium: Oil on canvas Size: 80 x 100cm
Year: 2019
Artist: Brandy Kraft
Photographer: Anna Katarina Larsson