As a botanical artist, Manda regularly uses imagery of local flora to reintroduce nature back to industrial and unnatural environments. By using the theme of botanicals to contrast against manmade, the artist seeks to soften the entrance to the carpark by using nature to offset the concrete, industrial-style location.
As an artist who has an IT job in front of computers, Manda regularly turns to nature and botanicals as a way of balancing out her visual field and mental space. With increasing use of technology, our ordinary, accidental encounters with nature are diminished, and left to be something that we have to actively prioritise.
By introducing nature back into locations that we regularly pass throughout our day, the artist aims to create that ‘accidental’ encounter with nature, remind people of the beauty of the natural world, and reencourage that inherent love that we have for local Australian flora.
This design includes Australian native botanicals local to the Geelong and Bellarine region, including local Acacia and Eucalyptus varieties. The work is hand-cut from paper, and applied to the wall using adhesive, against a painted white background on the wall. The use of paper cuttings as pasteups is labour-intensive and rarely seen in the outdoor space, particularly at this scale.
Manda Lane is a painter, illustrator and paper artist, based in Collingwood, Victoria. With a keen focus on botanicals, her art explores the interaction between nature and urban environments. Within her public art practice, Manda creates floral-based pasteups, stencils and murals, focusing on the styles and behaviours of both native and non-native flora.
Working predominantly in black and white, she likes to create public art with the purpose of re-connecting communities to the existence and beauty of nature, while also encouraging a conversation about human's influence on the natural world.