Inspiration-
Inspired by the great American poet, novelist, and short-story writer Sylvia Plath. Using her poem ‘Poppies In October’ from the anthology ‘Ariel’ as inspiration for this artwork. The poem opens with an image of poppies surviving the cold of October, Plath describes these as a gift- the only flowers blooming in the garden.

Poppies at Dusk Study explores the nature of intense emotion and the struggle to find meaning and beauty in the midst of chaos. It presents a more introspective and contemplative tone than Poppies In July, but both poems share a sense of the power and richness of intense, emotional experiences in everyday life.
In the autumn of 1962, only four months before her death the following February, Sylvia Plath wrote this cluster of extraordinary poems originally intended for the posthumous collection Ariel to close on a few poems about bees and flowers, instead of death. This collection of work immortalised her as one of the great classical heroines of all time.

Technique-
Poppies At Dusk (Ode To Sylvia) was created by constructing a hand-cut collage using female photographic portraiture combined with photograms of pressed linaria blossom stems and preserved bees from my private collection, gathered, pressed and preserved from my childhood garden. Also photographs of different varieties of poppies and other foliage to create the collage.