After researching Lewin’s work I had to create a map of imagesthat influenced me mainly for my project. I had to look throughher work, understand it and create something new, but at thesame time similar. In order to get clearer idea and puteverything I had in mind into order I wrote a travelogue to ‘leadme’ into the city. It was useful writing it, because you can put allyour ideas into one place and connect them with some kind oflogic.

At first I wanted to gather all the plants she paints and try torecreate them in a similar way like she does, but this didn’t turnto be a very good idea, because everything looked like herdrawings but bigger. Then I looked at things from a differentangle and I saw one of her plants that resembled Ferris wheelso this pushed the project to a different and better direction.

For Lewin her drawings and prints are parts of memories. Theseplants keep the memory of the places she visited and theemotions she felt. In this sense of things a theme park is a placewhere people make memories and win prizes which laterremind them of the time they visited it. There is somethingabout theme parks in general that looks a bit nostalgic. It’s aspecial and magical place.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl living in a big city… Not quite. She was an ordinary girl, not so pretty, nor smart, living in asmall flat with her mother. This family was a simple and ordinary one, just like any other in the city – gray and silent. Why grey and silent youmight ask? Well that is simple! Because all the colours the city had was everything from white to black. You would not be able to see pastyour nose even on a sunny day when the fog was not as thick as usual. The people that inhabited it were a reflection of this city. Since theplace had a rule of ‘no colours’, the emotions one could express were limited as well. Nobody knew what would happen if you dared to breakthe rules, because nobody was daring enough to do it, as to be brave and bold was something forbidden as well. If someone foreign were tovisit this city, they would think that it was deserted since the locals were not allowed to talk louder or more than necessary. Everyone hadtheir role which they fulfilled in silence in slavery to their city. Nobody dared to change their routines as they were taught in schools that thiswas the only way one could survive. But enough about this boring city… This young girl was called Flora. She was no different than any othercitizen. She had straight, dark grey hair, which rested on her shoulders, pale, white skin, and grey eyes. However, looks can be deceiving, aswhat actually made her different was her inner self. You see, a city where no fun is allowed and where laughing is permitted only duringcertain moments, may be boring for a little girl. Flora’s father, whom she never knew, was a brave man who dared to break the rules of theirsociety and got punished for it shortly after she was born. What was his crime you might ask? His crime was that he gave his daughter acolourful name – Flora. One of the rules of the city was that a person’s name should not have any meaning, nor stand out in any kind of way.It must be a combination of silent letters so that no one would have to raise their voice while pronouncing it. Flora’s mother was, as you mayhave figured out by now, a simple woman who had no emotions. She would show no affection nor sorrow about her missing husband, nordisplay love to her little daughter.

Flora would always spend her time in the attic, reading her father’s journals about the other worlds he used to imagine, after she had finishedher school duties. These journals were his way to escape his dull reality, without being punished for it. Like father, like child. She would hideher colourful mind in secret, even from her mother. It was a world where no one was allowed to think outside the borders that were enforcedupon them.

One day, Flora was in the attic when she heard a noise. She stopped reading her father’s journals and listened. Fast footsteps of a creaturewith small feet flew from one side of the roof to the small window on the wall. She stood up and tried to gently open it so she could see whatit was without scaring it – a chipmunk!

Travelogue

She had never seen one before and so she gasped in excitement. The old window creaked loudly as she forced it open, as it had most likelynever been opened before. Unfortunately, the noise scared the chipmunk away and it jumped, hiding in the tree’s canopy. ‘’Wait!’’,desperate to catch the animal, Flora tried to run after it and stumbled on the window’s frame falling on a branch. She climbed onto it andlooked around to discover something that appeared to be a small tree house, buried deep within the tree’s branches and hidden to thosewho may have peered up from below.

Inside she found an old wooden box with no lock. She opened it and found a book and a key in the shape of a dandelion next to it. As sheunlocked it a strong light shone from it, sucking Flora into its pages. The next thing she knew, she was no longer in the tree house. She foundherself in a forest far from the city where she lived. She knew that she must have been very far away, precisely due to the fact that this placewas not completely and utterly polluted with hues of gray. Although puzzled, she started to walk into this unfamiliar place and wonderedhow to get back home. But then again, why would she want to go back to the gray city? This was different and exciting and she liked it! Shewalked until she reached the edge of a cliff with the water of a nearby waterfall beneath her. She recalled all of the fascinating places herfather used to describe in his writings and imagine in his drawings, but this was way beyond anything she could have ever envisioned. Thesewere things she hadn’t learnt about in school, as they were taught only what was necessary in order for them to become good workers.Additional knowledge was not considered useful.

In the distance she spotted a big structure which looked something like a white dome. It was hard to tell the purpose it served amidst themountains. She started walking towards the mysterious, gigantic structure. As she got closer, it became more and more transparent. Soonshe realised it was a greenhouse with strange shapes inside. The greenhouse was surrounded by tall mountains and infinite forests.Logically, the dome wouldn’t receive much sunlight due to its surroundings, but somehow it seemed perfectly lit, almost shining. Soon Florasaw that it was not the dome that was shining, but the mirrors on one of the mountains ridges, reflecting sunlight onto it. Why hadsomeone set up a fake sun just for this greenhouse? What does it contain? Is it dangerous? All of these questions started popping up insideFlora’s head with every step she took towards the greenhouse.

Finally, Flora made it to the dome. However, she saw no door, so she stood there wondering how she could enter it. The dome seemed to bemade out of glass. She looked inside through the glass but couldn’t make out what was in there beside bushes. The puzzling structure was sobig that she felt like an ant beside it. So fascinating and magnificent and so shiny in the reflected sunlight, it even slightly intimidated her. Shewalked around the dome on the muddy grass for almost an hour looking for an door or a gate, until she found a pile of big rocks where shesaw a small opening, just big enough for her to squeeze in.

As she continued forward, she spotted a gigantic Ferris wheel in the shape of а dill in the distance ahead. It was slowly moving clockwise. Itscabins were in the shape of seeds, as if the Ferris wheel had little Ferris wheels all circling on their own axis. The buildings near her lookedlike seeds about to bloom into poppies. It seemed as if they were houses. They had small holes like windows and bigger ones carved into itshapes like doors. It was so interesting how these poppy seeds looked the same but at the same time different in their structure and posesunder the reflected light. There were no streets, as the entire field was grassy with a few rocky patches here and there. There were only buttrees inside, but mostly structures resembling plants. She could recall all of these shapes from the journal. They were each triggering adifferent memory, a different story that her father had told. Everything was separated in their plant groups, which made the place even moreexciting and layered. One could never be bored, as there was always something new to explore. She remembered that in the journal was aweed-stinging nettle, which gathered around a certain area under the most beautiful structures. It was the suburbs. It’s leaves were in theshape of horizontal pointy blocks with small windows. This place was most definitely the neighbourhood of the poor people. ‘Every beautifulthing needs its protection’, her father wrote in his journal. It is natural behaviour for one organism to serve as a defence of another species.Other type of weeds were either houses glued to one another with oddly shaped rooftops or shopping centres – every branch and floor withdifferent a store. The same rule applied to different leisure activities. ‘The fun neighbourhood’, her father had named it. They were all rarelyfound plants that would grow only on rocky places, so she found herself on uneven ground.

As Flora continued wandering deeper into the city, she started to see its citizens. They appeared to look just like in the city she lived in.However, she noticed that they dressed differently and wore many bright and beautiful colours. They also made different facial expressions,some of which were very unusual. Suddenly, Flora witnessed something rare – the place became loud with chatter as the air filled with voicesand unfamiliar sounds. ‘Why are these people talking to each other and making strange noises? Why are they so different from oneanother?’, she pondered.

She saw vehicles that looked like sliced oranges or lemons, moving forwards on their seeds. It all seemed so fun and exciting. The people

who were passing by greeted her with strange expressions, their mouths curling upwards at the sides. She had never seen this type of

expression before, so she couldn’t really name it. She wondered what this gesture could mean, and since she was told from when she was

little to always blend in, she started repeating what the people around her were doing. Flora was a gray girl amidst a rainbow of colours,

and she definitely stood out.

It seemed that Flora had reached the city centre, as the buildings were different than the ones she had seen up until now. Everything had

been more like different types of neighbourhoods, with only a specific set of plant-shaped buildings. Here, she saw tall buildings reaching

up into in the sky as flowers. There were skyscrapers in the shapes of different leaves. On the ground were large circular shapes, the

middle part of the flower, which functioned as large buildings, maybe hospitals, or perhaps even schools. Encasing these buildings were

petals, which collected solar energy when they bloomed. The biggest and most interesting building so far, was a purple one that looked like

it had a crown of blue, green and pink in a unique shape of a not bloomed yet rare flower. Near it were a set of thistles with all different

types of petals. Even though these plants did not usually look very friendly nor beautiful, there was something about their colours and

shapes that made them look so beautiful.

She suddenly realised that the city was getting darker. All the flower buildings closed their petals. There were lamps on the grassy ‘streets’shaped like briar berries, which were lit up by fireflies. She followed the path up to a small lake which was surrounded by the glow of somestrange flowers. Around the lake was a bush of dandelions, brightly lit up in different colours. There was one in the lake, to witch peoplehad to cross over to by a bridge. She became so curious as to what these buildings were, as there were interesting noises coming fromthem. As she drew nearer, she saw some citizens sitting on small wooden chairs at wide tables having a meal. Flora realised that she hadn’teaten anything since arriving at this place and smelling the food triggered her hunger. She found a place at a table and sat away from thelocals. She was given the menu by the waiter. Everything on the menu included all kinds of insects and plants. The idea to have a mealquickly disappeared from her mind and she moved on the to dandelion-shaped buildings where she found herself amongst a crowd ofpeople who were doing something forbidden for her – fun. And she gave in…

Nobody knows what happened to Flora afterwards. Her mother, as gray as she was never seemed to miss her, or at least never showed it.Rumour has it, she committed a crime and she was punished for it. Some say she escaped somehow over the highly secured border. Soonafter nobody even knew who was Flora. Maybe just another citizen on the gray city, how could someone tell the difference between oneanother, when they are both alike?

At first while I was researching through the internet for literally anything that came to my mind, I wrote down everything I found of value to the project. I took notes of articles about Lewin I found, because I wanted to take parts of her and bring them to the final image.

When I was looking for the perfect name for the city I brainstormed a lot, because it had to be Scottish name, since she likes Scottish folklore so it seemed like the perfect idea. After big research of Scottish names I found only two that would fit the city – Flora and Layle. Flora means ‘flower’ and Layle – ‘from another island’ comes from the word land, so I combined them into Florayle, which following the logic should mean ‘flower from another island’.

With all ideas being ‘let out’ of my mind I picked my favourite designs for structures and collaged them into a final image which later on I coloured with gradient map. The image I was going for was extreme low fisheye angle to make the structures seem bigger and massive. It’s inspired from kineticstructures so everything had to seem in movement. The shapes are simplified, because of Lewin’s work. She uses a lot of circular shapes, dandelions and different kid of herbs, which in her prints looked like Ferris Wheels and this was the base for my final concept.

Every element of the image hadseparate gradient, because I wantedto add different colour effects tosome details. Angie focuses in theplant’s structures and shows howevery plant is different than theother, this is exactly what I wasgoing for. Although the colours, ofcourse, had to be of the samecolour pallet, they were still a bitdifferent. The colours I chose are allvintage and are colours I pickedfrom her prints.