Flowers first, then cake.

So I put myself in a self imposed ‘lockdown’ pre summer holidays in order to complete this porcelain scene – and then I caught Covid for the first time! So I had a Covid imposed lockdown instead.. Doesn’t the universe work in funny ways :/

So I didn’t quite get it done when I had planned to but finally – here it is – ‘Flowers first, Then Cake’, is a deeper exploration into land animals and sea animals relationships with one another and their environment. Secondary, is the unavoidable self reflective enquiry into your relationship with these animals, which may even occur without conscious thought.

The Story.

As I was designing this piece I was heavily invested in the characters personalities. Cow, ever regal is the symbol of Mother Nature herself. She gives the impression of sitting on a pedestal, of hierarchal power but thats not quite true. It is true that she is serene and she is powerful, gliding in her boat. Yet her vulnerability is equal to any being made of flesh and blood. She’s visiting her friend Pig who lives on the other side of the lake who is a different character. Pig is that excitable friend we all have. He tries to contain his thrill at his friends visit by grasping his hands together as otherwise they’d be flailing all over the place! He’s hitching up and down on his tip toes in the long grass reaching to clasp a glimpse of his friend. Finally, a new friend – Fish, follows Cows boat (see her leap up and into the water as Cow travels). And of course there’s always enough cake to go around. Fish’s is served on a rock. Cow and Pigs on mushrooms. It’s a celebration getting together with good friends isn’t it, a celebration worthy of a vegan victoria sponge.

The Making.

Making the boat was probably my favourite part in the process. I made it in card first, then cut out all the panels in porcelain paper-clay before attaching them together. I added lots of holes so that I could create loads of tiny flowers and glue them in place with wire. You might catch a glimpse of the meadow in the mountains where Cow collected her treasures to gift Pig.

I had an idea to make a victoria sponge but wanted to have slices available too for the animals. So you’ll see I made one – cut it in half, and into pieces so that it could be one cake, but easily separated. The tiny strawberries on top were rather tricky! They’ve even got gold specks on top if you look closely.. And of course – they use leaves for plates!

I love adding movement into the scenes, really giving them life. So the lemon and gold wild geese needed freedom to fly. Hard to show on an image but they are suspended loosely on the wire so that they can soar (somewhat!).

The Inspiration

The inspiration as ever comes from my vision of helping us to connect with farmed animals, in particular the use of the mothers womb, her body parts and her nurturing qualities to solely the human advantage. In this scene I heavily explored animals relationships to one another – the theme is connection. Connection to one another, connection to animals and connection to our earth. If one of those links break, they all break. We cannot accept cruelty to one form of life and then be appalled when the same action is repeated to a different form of life. It is possible to make compassionate choices in many aspects of our life, but we must move beyond the social norms, the societal conditioning and carve out a new path. A path of compassion to animals, humans and the planet. The future looks much more rosy if we can.