colour is resistance.
Disbudded.
Camellia.
This resilient tree who blooms in the darkest season of the year and pours her ever giving heart out is one of my soul sisters. It may also have something to do with her being occasionally called old fashioned, (personally I dig the Nanna vibes) but I digress.
This particular tree has suffered a small shock. Some of her roots were damaged by mains sewer encasement works. Sh!t-shuffling always takes priority. It is the end of the flowering season and she has new bright green leaves sprouting all over her. So she has decided to disbud. She has dropped her unopened blooms, relinquishing her sexuality, in order to conserve her energy and direct it internally towards her own growth. To repair her roots and sink them deep. To strengthen the (family) tree. To thrive without becoming depleted.
She is PINK.
Peace within.
Two petals are inseparably close. One wraps tightly around the other. The tighter it curls in, the stronger it constrains, the more the inner petal preserves and holds space for peace within.
colour is a rebellion against sameness and is a bold statement of individuality.
too much.
Pink tulips signify imagination and chasing dreams. Green tulips represent a hopeful beginning. I can’t think of anything more fitting for where I am currently at in my life, than to combine pink and green stripes on a tulip. The patternation harks back to the semper augustus tulips in Rachel Ruysch’s paintings. This tulip is perhaps the most “too much” flower an overtly ambitious artist like myself could find.
spent.
Spent. Nothing says exhaustion like a carpet of jacaranda blooms. It's as if the tree is declaring "Thats it; I'm done" in the most extraverted manner. She is self-reliant, audacious and resilient.
Women Holding Things by Maira Kalman changed my entire world. Putting some things down and letting some things be what they are, has perhaps been the hardest part for me to learn when trying to forge a new path for myself out of patriarchy.
I realised that by letting go of some things, my hands became free to hold the most important things in my life well. Free to create, to craft, and to care. To nourish and nurture. To restore, replenish and receive.
Quentin Bryce said "(women) can have it all, but not all at the same time."
May we all continue to let go of what isn't serving us well.
Narcissus.
The Narcissus (daffodil) is named after the Greek myth of a young man who rejected the love of many including Echo. He was punished by the Gods and became so enamoured by his own reflection he fell into a trance by a pool of water and died. These flowers bloomed where he perished. Here, I have painted the bloom with its back turned to me the artist and you the viewer.
The vibrant colours are a deliberate statement against chromaphobia.