Women and Flowers (My Daffodils)

I know a lot of women in my community who create artwork of whatever kind. I went to a workshop last summer and there were a lot of women who were much older than me and well-versed in the creative arts. The experience was entirely brand new for me; to be amidst a class of women who took their work seriously made me feel like I was sort of fumbling through life, in comparison. It was a print-making workshop and they took it seriously, in a casual way. The event culminated in a pop-up show and my work, in comparison to these other (older) women, was bizarre and exhibiting hints of uncommon mental clutter. The process included selecting natural things to develop a collage, which was then put through the press after being properly inked... and so on. My fellow classmates produced stunning works of art, polished, designed, and displayed to perfection. Mine was a bit of a mish-mosh, as if I am still figuring out what the world around me is all about. Art reflects truth like that.

One common theme I have noticed which emerges through any medium is the ability to reflect back to the world the beauty of nature. Flowers are a specific favourite of mine and I've studied them and the various ways to paint them quite a lot over the years. As my life experienced a variety of upheavals, my paintings have reflected this unsteadiness. The painting I am sharing with you today is prime example of this occurrence. It reflects a certain jitteriness and uncertainty even though nothing could be more certain than a daffodil in the Spring. I lost my confidence in the world around me within the not-so-distant past, but what is the human experience if not varied with mountains and valleys. 

I saw a confidence and clarity of mind in the works of these older women. With ease, they threw their projects together and reflected a certainty out into the world that I seem to be starved for. Men exhibit it in acts of strength of whatever kind, but women exhibit their strength by reflecting the beauty of nature back to us. I don't have pictures of the art class, but it seemed like a relevant theme for this painting as I present it to the world. I painted it while living in my camper and I see a sense of being hemmed in reflected in the image as well. These observations are the ways in which I get to know myself.