Paola’s Garden is a digitally painted artwork in the signature style of Iris Sylv — computational herbalism. It is part of Series 1 of the Reflections project.
Roses, peonies, magnolias, camelias.
Swirling and marbled, melted and dreamy, like an oil film on water, or viewed through a surface of ripples. Hovered over in a bird’s view, kaleidoscopic, embossed and retracted or embedded into the distance. Bitter-sweetly familiar and curiously ambiguous. Drawing you in.
This is how viewers have described these allusions to plants in Iris’ works. Besides the obviously botanical, the audience has also found impressions of animals, stylized faces, cultural symbols and abstract forms that inspire a wide range of emotions and interpretations. Maybe not all of it at once in Paola’s Garden, but definitely in the broader series.
Paola’s Garden is one in a series of experiments of cultivating tiny visual fragments called seeds into intricate and emotionally charged visual worlds called gardens. The full displayable artwork consists of a large botanical abstract impressionistic painting (Paola’s Garden) and a much smaller watercolor-like impressionistic drawing (Paola’s Seed), which acts as the starting point for the work.
Both the seed and the garden are created by Iris. She first hand-paints the seed on a digital tablet and then develops it through a complex multi-step flow, featuring custom painting tools and processes that she programmed on her own, specifically for the purposes of her practice.
In the physical world, Paola’s Garden is realized as a limited edition archival canvas print (edition of 6), and Paola’s Seed accompanies it in the form of a fine-art postcard.
Both the print and the postcard are hand-documented and signed by the artist on the back. A Certificate of Authenticity is issued for each purchase.
The Reflections project explores nature — but not as an objective reality and not in a documentary sense. Here, nature is understood as an ideal reconstructed through human-made technology and free-hand experimentation with optical instruments. It is rendered through the prism of personal memories and the subjectivity of human visual perception.
Combining hand-painting techniques with algorithmic computation, the project contributes a new perspective on historical art movements such as Impressionism and Pointillism. It also pursues the curiosity of what emerges when ideas traditionally seen as segregate are allowed to interplay.
Reflections serves as a vehicle for exploring questions of physical and emotional growth, and human culture, inviting viewers to navigate their own associations and interpretations through immersion in rich visual detail.
The project is structured around twelve thought-provoking questions. Rather than proposing definitive answers, it encourages each viewer to arrive at their own reflections, making every encounter with the work deeply personal.
Meet Iris Sylv and discover her practice in the about section: About me, Computational Herbalism.
Explore the project concept and other works from the series on the project page: Reflections.
Learn how Iris creates seeds and develops them into full gardens: Reflections, Process.
Watch Paola’s Garden come to life in these artwork-specific process videos: Timelapses.
Zoom into textures and details from Paola’s Garden: Close-Ups.
Imagine Paola’s Garden in your space — see interior mockups and inspirational color palettes: Interior Design.
See Paola’s Garden in an exhibition setting: Installation Views, Gallery.
Access installation instructions for galleries and museums: Exhibition Guidelines.
Review Paola’s Garden and the full series offline or print the documentation: Download Catalogue.
Learn about the work’s real-life physical form and how you can own it: FAQ.
Collect the complete artwork: Paola’s Garden – Full artwork – Purchase.
Collect the initial seed: Paola’s Seed – Purchase.