Bianca A. Flores
Artist Statement
I have been drawing ever since I was a little girl and could hold a crayon in my hand, but I never actually explored art until I was in my last years of elementary. We were doing a project about our family histories, treating it as if we were noble houses from England. We gave ourselves family mottos and colors, but what stuck with me most was our family coat of arms. We were told to create an emblem that connects to not only our family name but means something for our family members. My last name is Flores, so I immediately decided to base my emblem off flowers, and that is when I really began to recognize the meaning behind flowers. Drawing that emblem, it went from drawing a couple of flowers to making art with an arrangement of flowers that held a meaning that only I knew. That was when I began to approach both communication and design while exploring my fascination with floriography.
When I began this project, I started with brainstorming what I would want from these products as a consumer. I decided that I wanted more than just a book on floriography, but its use in media and art. I did not just want to write about what each flower means, but the history of why the flower earned its meaning and how that’s used to influence us without us knowing. When I was designing the flowers for the book, I kept an artist point of view in mind. I wanted a personal touch to each flower, to add a human connection to the meaning. For the additional accessories, I wanted to design products that I would pay money to own. I designed my poster so that it would look nice not only as an advertisement but as a decoration on someone’s wall. I designed the pin to look stylish on their own but connect back to the book, and I designed the bookmarks to be their own small pieces of art.
I wanted every piece to work well on their own, to stand out as their own separate products, while also having them look cohesive when together. I also wanted to be able to look at these works as examples of my accomplishments as both a designer and an illustrator.
