Artist Statement

Time is fleeting and as I go on, I feel a growing urge to save it. You’ve heard the question, how many summers do we have left? And I can’t stop asking myself, how many flowers do I have left? Flowers and sunlight are my twin sources of expressing the passage of time caught in a single moment on a summer’s day, and then stretched to eternity, like the silent tombs in the cathedral. Being conscious of time in this way reminds us to be alive. We are so lightly here, but we are here.

I used to think that beauty was something nice to have but now I realize it’s a deliberate effort one must make and with some fierceness. We must make and create a space for beauty in the world. We all deserve the experience and I want to share this through the work I do.

The peonies are all from my own garden and I want the viewer to feel the same elation that I do when they emerge and bloom. I want the viewer to feel the light and the heat on the flowers, the strong shadows, as well.

There’s the quotation by Rumi, where he says:

“Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.”

My hope is that these floral expanses open up a spaciousness in the viewer where they might imagine themselves walking in a garden. The paintings will act as a reminder that beauty surrounds us.