Floral Collages

Earth laughs in flowers. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Flowers are beautiful hieroglyphics of nature, with which she indicates how much she loves us". Wolfgang von Goethe

I'll take a single wild flower anytime, given with affection. My granddaughter has learned this gesture and knows, that the little unknown purple weed she hands us will guarantee putting smiles on her recipients faces.

I love artist Georgia O'Keefe's incredible, sensual large size orchids, and Vincent Van Goghs well loved and admired Sunflowers. Claude Monets Lillies never fail to fascinate us, i am not ashamed to say i covet his work and style. But being unique creators that we are, we see life and things around us differently.

As for me, i find pleasure in creating floral collages. What are they? They are a hodgepodge of flowers from gardens i have visited, which i have personally photographed and rendered into digital artistic expressions. They are meaningful to me of course. Many of these works conjure images of a childhood fantasy, that of a little girl carrying a basket of fresh flowers picked from a garden. You too may have seen this image. It's a 'fairy tale' existence, pure and innocent, filled with happiness, where no pain exist, Unreal perhaps, but so pleasing to the spirit. I can't say it enough how much i love being in a garden, to enjoy a nice long walk, to soak up natures beauty and lavishness, then sit and meditate on the gift of life, that of mine and those surrounding me.

What is there not to love about flowers, except that they perish. But, as fragile as they are, their presence has the power to bring the greatest joy and healing. As a photo-digital artist, i find the greatest pleasure in capturing them. Wasn't it Monet who said, "I owe it to Flowers that I'm a painter"? As my artistic journey continues, my interpretation of flowers evolves.

"What a desolate place would be a world without flowers. It would be a face
without a smile; a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars
of the earth? Are not our stars the flowers of heaven?"-Clara L. Balfour

"I believe that nature was given to us for our healing and pleasure, and Creator Himself found amusement being the Ultimate Artist" -Sylvia van Velzer