Stop and Smell the Flowers

Oil on canvas, pressed flowers, 2025
 
How do I depict the importance of the relationship I have with my grandmother? My sustained investigation is about depicting the relationship between nature and people and how each is affected by the passage of time, particularly related to my family. My relationship with my grandmother, Minnie, is incredibly important to me, so I wanted to detail our relationship. Whenever I visit my grandparents home in New Orleans, I am surrounded by flowers and greenery in balmy Southern Louisiana. Minnie inspires me to create, whether it be by a floral arrangement for her kitchen or a piece for her eighty-fourth birthday.  In this piece, I used expressionist brushstrokes with oil paint to reflect the fragility of time. Often, cool colors represent age and maturity, while warm colors reflect youth and innocence, so I chose to paint and  use pressed flowers in such colors to cover my face and my grandmother’s.