Waiting to bloom: Corpse Flower Lois © Wrenaissance Art
Like almost everybody else in Houston this July, I rushed to see Lois the Corpse Flower bloom at the Museum of Natural Science. Or rather, to watch her in bud, as she didn’t actually bloom until 3 weeks after the initial announcement. The crowds were not too bad if you went at 7 am, as I usually did. Besides the flower, it was an amusing exercise in non-profit public relations, marketing and expectations management. How does one balance the need to promote an interesting educational event to the public using the media, without pushing said newsmedia into a hype machine for a natural process that can’t possibly meet the breathless vaporings of the 6 o’clock broadcasters?
The atrium where the flower was displayed was very cramped, with no room to discreetly sketch, although I did manage to get a basic palette mixed for a final composition one weekday morning.
The plant itself is pretty interesting. Arum titan grows from a corm, just like anemones. Unlike anemones, it grows on limestone cliffs in the Indonesian rainforest. The bloom imitates the look and smell of carrion to attract the beetles that pollinate it. Immediately after pollination, the giant flower closes, and the plant enters dormancy, later re-sprouting in its vegetal stage.
For an illustrator, the flower offers many rendering challenges of texture, color and composition.
Check back often to see updates as I illustrate this fascinating flower!
