North Carolina artists Cassie Butcher and Shannon Woodford are coming together for a joint show at Art and Light Gallery that celebrates the language of flowers through a pairing of their unique ceramics and paintings. Floriography, as it is also known, was a form of coded communication that saw a resurgence during the repressed Victorian era to express emotion.
Cassie Butcher, a collection of soul sculptures, clay, sizes vary
Butcher will present 45 new clay works inspired by this idea and expressed through her signature “Soul” sculptures. Butcher says she likes “to use the word ‘soul’ to describe [her] figures to give folks a nudge past the superficial and give them a chance to think quietly about others, about themselves and the part of us that is not easily explained.”
Butcher had read a novel in which the characters relied on floriography. “As I read the book I had images of soul sculptures incorporating flowers to give them a deeper story, especially the ones with meanings more complex than love or sympathy,” she says. Taking cues from the Victorian-era tradition, she also uses abstracted variations of flowers, trees, and vines to insinuate notions of growth, change, playfulness and beauty.
Cassie Butcher, Moss: Motherly Love, clay and mixed media, 11½ x 114⁄5"
In Moss: Motherly Love, the plant actually creates a space for the pieces. “I envision collectors gathering a group of souls with floral images as though they are a bouquet full of meaning…perhaps a posse of souls!”
Woodford takes a different approach and explores the evocative power of flowers through paint, adding nearly 20 works to the colorful display aptly titled Blooming Narrative. “I was captivated by the idea of flowers having their own individual stories to tell,” says Woodford. “Flowers are nearly always thought of in a plural presentation—a bouquet, a bush, a pasture of wildflowers—as if they don’t each have their own struggle and journey towards the sunlight.” Her piece Sacred was inspired by blackberry bushes, which suggest both nourishment and its thorns, potential pain. “[It represents] the spectacular sweetness and inherent difficulties of life,” says Woodford. “You can’t have one without the other.”
Shannon Woodford, Evening Harbor, oil on canvas, 48 x 48"
Evening Harbor depicts Queen Anne’s Lace, at twilight, “Queen Anne’s Lace looks like lace, but it isn’t pretentious. It’s a wildflower that works equally well in a cultivated flowerbed. It’s frothy and delicate but strong-stemmed and can grow almost anywhere.”
“Bringing together whimsical paintings and introspective ceramic sculptures through the common theme of florals has allowed for a unique and layered collection that any collector can admire,” says gallery director Bracken Sansbury.
Shannon Woodford, Sacred, oil on canvas, 36 x 36"
Blooming Narrative will be available for viewing beginning May 30, both online and in the gallery. An opening reception will be held on June 2, from 6 to 8 p.m. —
Art & Light Gallery 16 Aiken Street • Greenville, SC 29611 • (864) 252-5858 www.artandlightgallery.com
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