Tokyo, Japan (CNN)From flowers locked in ice to space-age pine trees, Japanese artist Makoto Azuma has built a career from a "new genre of art" that blends plants with artificial mediums to strikingly beautiful effect.
A florist by training, the Tokyo-based Azuma creates what he describes as "living art" -- ecosystems using fish and bonsai, bicycles covered in astroturf and spectacular fungi dipped in gold, platinum and copper.
For one of his best known series, "Exobiotanica", Azuma sent a 50-year-old Japanese white pine bonsai and an extravagant mother"s day bouquet 30,000 meters into the atmosphere and photographed his unusual satellites suspended against the edge of the earth.
"Many misunderstand me as a contemporary artist, or drawer, or sculptor, he says. "But I create living art. I am creating a totally new way of expression."
CNN Style spoke to Azuma about the inspiration behind his work, his relationship with flowers and the technical challenges of transforming life into art.
Do you see yourself as an artist or a florist?
I think I am a florist to begin with. But I create my art work in orderto find out new value and potential inflowers. So I am a florist as well as an artist. Both are important for me.
What is the most surprising thing you have learned about plants and flowers to date?
Flowers have a very strongexistence. A human needs flowers and plantsto live, but flowers and plantsdo not need humans. They are so strong.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/30/arts/makoto-azuma-flower-art/index.html
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