Artist Statement

Inspired by 17th century Dutch still life painters, this body of work explores “impossible bouquets,” compositions that imaginatively combine flowers from different seasons, geographies,and personal timelines. In dialogue with artists across the centuries, my practice blends a love of nature and close observation with expressive color, abstraction, and a contemporary painting language. Drawing on my private archive of photographs taken in botanical gardens, during travels near and far, and from moments in my own garden, I create digital collages as reference material for these constructed arrangements. Each bloom holds a memory of a time and place in my personal history, as well as the visual delight of color, shape, movement,and light. My process utilizes the collages as spring boards rather than blueprints, incorporating flowers painted from life in the studio and elements painted from memory and invention.Some compositions are grounded within a believable space: an arrangement sprawling from a vase,or bulbs blooming in a garden, while others float within an impossible black void. Across the series, I explore my fascination with the meaning and visual power of dark backgrounds found throughout art history, the velvety blackness providing contrast and context for the exuberant color and light of flowers.I understand this darkness not as a foreboding emptiness, but rather a fullness of wonder, stillness, and reverence for nature, beauty, and the mystery of life