Most artists want their artworks to last forever and end up being consumed by their pursuit of immortality. UK artist Hannah Bullen-Ryner, on the other hand, values the beauty of ephemeral art and the way its “mortality” makes it special.
Bullen-Ryner creates temporary animal portraits using found material. She collects branches, leaves, pebbles, and everything else she can find in nature and starts forming her artwork on the spot. The finished pieces are left where they are to be “blown away on the breeze.”
“I lay my emotions down on the ground, and they blow away. That is a very cathartic experience,” she explains on her website.
According to the artist, she never knows what she will create before actually starting to do it. The material she finds and her mood often lead the way.
“Sometimes I want to make something cute and uplifting, other times it’s more dark or energetic,” Bullen-Ryner adds.
Despite working with limited material, Bullen-Ryner manages to recreate the facial features of her subjects in great detail. And fortunately, her works actually never disappear completely, as she snaps a few photos to share them with her social media followers. Occasionally, Bullen-Ryner also creates prints of her temporary animal portraits that she sells on Etsy.
