“All art is but imitation of nature”
– Lucius Annaeus Seneca
I recently travelled to a treasure land of beauty, in search of an inspiration. I was quite excited to realize my leanings for the day! I knew, the nature’s teachings, were going to be my assets for life and would help me understand design and art better.
For those of you, stuck in Challenge, it is a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies found in nature to solve human design challenges. Isn’t that interesting?
Okay, now let me get back to sharing my experience. As I said, I was curious to know what nature was about to unfold for me that day. I knew, the teachings were going to be my assets for life and would help me understand design and art better.
Can you imagine, there was a dragonfly, right at my first step! I felt, I could not have got a better welcome. It was only a start to the show put up by nature, that day.
Shall we quickly zoom in to the Dragon fly now?
My photo shoot with the Flying Star!
While dragon flies are of varied colors, the one I saw, was a bright one. It was beautifully crafted in dark maroon red and a tint of pink color, with transparent wings. Did I just say crafted? Oh yes! Nature is the master crafter here. Undoubtedly, dragon flies are an amazing part of the flying insect species.
Did you know our dear fly gave me a pose, just when I wanted to capture its beauty? I realized that day, that maybe we are inherently connected with the nature. It looked like I requested for a permission to capture and it happily agreed to pose.
As I bid farewell to him and moved forward, a small fly, which belonged to the family of butterflies, caught my complete attention. It was resting on a beautiful plant.
This made me realize that the more attention I give to nature, the more treasures it would unfold for me. The above-mentioned insect was tiny mixed brow colored and almost visibly lost on the plant stem.
When seen together, all I could see was a beautiful picture with a brown fly, purple flowers and green leaves. It is no less than any art and these colors inspire artists. A further step forward and I was lost in thought again.
A lecture on the plant life science
I saw the entire life cycle of a plant, that was shining like a star. The plant is Pavonia Zeylanica. Typically translating it, it is the afternoon jasmine.
Let me try to show it all to you, with reference to the picture next.
Bud: This stage has it all covered in layers, almost like, its planning to protect the bud. The natural built-in security system of strong green walls, with an added external layer of white spider web like material, keeps the bud safe.
Blooming stage: In this stage the bud blooms, to be a flower. A beautiful pink colored one, which is a visual treat.
The flower: The final and the matured stage of a pure white flower, with five petals.
My observation helped me understand the subtle and artistic transitions of colors and shapes in nature, tied with growth. Each color, each shape and each element have their own significance in the story of nature.
While am still mesmerized with the tremendous beauty, let me not stop sharing the further stories that I came across.
The social inspiration
These creepers are all intertwined. By saying so, I mean, they creep into each other, very calculatedly. To look at, they give the visual of a multiple spiral. That’s a maze isn’t it? Yes. It’s an intricate self-built maze.
They teach us, humans, to create and live in communities. Also how well, we have to be connected with our fellows.
They form spirals at every phase, creating interconnected schools of creepers. I personally, think our very famous wires and networks could all be mimicked from these plants. After all, nature inspired and keeps inspiring us, through out our lives!
The magician and the magic itself!
Sorry, I don’t know the name of this plant, but if asked, I would call them green roses. I saw pink, white, red and many other color flowers except the green ones, with leaves and stem integrated. This narrow stem, creates its own green flowers in multiple numbers. Yes yes! You heard me right. Green flowers.
On a deeper look it is understood that these flowers grow one by one, in a natural process and later are converted into leaves from the bottom and bloom as flowers in the top. Okay! Let me simplify it for you. The initial green flowers that we spoke about, later convert into leaves from the bottom part and flowers from the top part. It’s like one, becoming two.
The fashionista I envy
Here is the next star of the day!
This plant is an amazing one with an equally astonishing behavior of its own. It keeps changing the colors of its leaf, almost like a Chameleon and this is a very unique characteristic of this plant.
It all starts with a green plant leaf and then a shift to bright orange. To look at it, in itself, is as energizing as a red bull. Haha! Such wonder filled nature.
I also started to envy this plant. If only, I had an option to change my outfit colors, whenever and however I wanted! Huh! One lucky thing, isn’t it?
The dramatic showstopper!
With the day getting darker and as my journey was coming to an end, I got the best parting gift. It was Gloriosa superba , a beautiful amalgamation of multiple gradients in green and orange. The flower was complexly curled and twisted. It looked like a creative masterpiece of nature. If I have to use some fashion terms, I would call it the showstopper of today’s show!
It was also an interesting architectural piece for me, as I have noticed that the flower is all supported by one single stem. Just one. I am totally unaware and dumbstruck seeing these balancing capabilities it has.
As the flower’s life ends, it flows down towards the ground, in the opposite direction to current flow. Such drama!
With every minute spent closer to nature, I realized it is a theater with the flora and fauna as performing artists.
Nature is a mentor. Nature is a model and Nature is what inspires me.
To experience this, be lost in nature! Like its said, you also experience yourself, when you experience nature.
