Many of my paintings teach me something about myself. Patterns found in nature tend to surface repeatedly in my work, and of all the marks that emerge, this little heart-shaped flower is my favorite.
It makes me wonder what the skeleton of a flower might look like, if such a thing existed. There is something beautiful about imagining the structure beneath the bloom, the part that remains after everything else has faded.
Historically, artists often included skulls, flowers, fruit, and insects in still lifes as memento mori, reminders of the fragility and impermanence of life. They asked us to remember that life is fleeting, and to savor the day.
What a beautiful, slightly macabre way to celebrate being alive.
I intentionally painted the room these hung in, a deep blue as a backdrop to the three works in a way that both harmonizes with and elevates the work. I have grown so tired of institutionalized white spaces that don’t let the work breathe or harmonize with the environment around it.
In this way, if you had a chance to see it at ArtPrize next to Periwinkle Fog, I asked viewers a simple question.
The question isn’t, What does this color mean?
It’s What does this color awaken in you?
Because, as the saying goes, we do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.
Many of my paintings teach me something about myself. Patterns found in nature tend to surface repeatedly in my work, and of all the marks that emerge, this little heart-shaped flower is my favorite.
It makes me wonder what the skeleton of a flower might look like, if such a thing existed. There is something beautiful about imagining the structure beneath the bloom, the part that remains after everything else has faded.
Historically, artists often included skulls, flowers, fruit, and insects in still lifes as memento mori, reminders of the fragility and impermanence of life. They asked us to remember that life is fleeting, and to savor the day.
What a beautiful, slightly macabre way to celebrate being alive.
I intentionally painted the room these hung in, a deep blue as a backdrop to the three works in a way that both harmonizes with and elevates the work. I have grown so tired of institutionalized white spaces that don’t let the work breathe or harmonize with the environment around it.
In this way, if you had a chance to see it at ArtPrize next to Periwinkle Fog, I asked viewers a simple question.
The question isn’t, What does this color mean?
It’s What does this color awaken in you?
Because, as the saying goes, we do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.
