Leaf Break
wire, rhododendron leaf, 4x4x6
July 2012
Good friends spotted some rhododendron leaf skeletons in the Washington Arboretum. These are large and robust, but the most striking thing to me is how the pattern of veins within each leaf is like a city grid. And when I thought of it, it is so for very similar reasons—easy movement of resources to every corner of the leaf.
We classify so easily, it can be hard to see pattern when it is within the leaf, so I intentionally tried to break it. I did this by sectioning, and making the overall shape bend through space, instead of sitting in a single plane as original leaf did.