I looked at historical tulip vases first at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I found a Dutch tulip vase from the 1700's that I thought had a good overall form, but it looked too much like a trophy.

Then I went on to look at contemporary artists like Henk Stallinga on the MoMA site. His 1993 work titled "vase" was a block of polyurethane and viscose.  I liked how his work was minimalistic and yet still functioning.


I wanted my tulip vase to have political meaning. So I was thinking about making a tulip vase regarding whaling and its affects on the baleen whale population. I drew some sketches of this idea, I will continue to add more.