One of my favorite flowers that you will see in many of my pieces are bleeding hearts. I have many reference photos of these beautiful pink heart-shaped flowers. Every spring when they start to bloom, I feel compelled to snap more photos of the beautiful, pink, bleeding hearts.

Because of the natural way these plants grow and the way the stem gently bends in an arc shape, makes it easy to use the flowers in a variety of compositions.

In my paper sculpture design “Crossing My Hearts,” I wanted the illustration to be a flat 2D painting and then have the flowers flow gently out of the paper into a three-dimensional painting. When you first look at the picture, it appears to be a two-dimensional piece, but then are surprised when you realize that the flowers are coming out of the background into the foreground.

I wanted to add a touch of humor to this piece, so I added the ants to look as though they are marching along, one after another, like ants do, all along the stem of the flower. Maybe they are getting ready to dance and do the mamba.