100 Daffodils, Continued! **

Metaphors for Being? Consider the Daffodil

10 & 11
Acrylic + 4x12

In these trying and stressful times, sheltered in place, isolated, and yet protesting virtually or in reality, we need to balance our tensions! 

We need patches of peace, way stations of quiet, escape mechanisms...And there are many: music, books, films, puzzles, games...We need them all to meet the varieties of stress we face and the differences in individuals, but can a simple flower suffice?

12 & 13
Acrylic +  4x12

One of the recent surprises of our sheltering in place has been the rush on gardening! Garden centers and suppliers have been selling out, even with the more complicated "curbside service." There is something basic in flowers, plants. Greenery soothes, forest bathing is being prescribed when possible, or just more walking with social distancing. Not so new to the scene, flowers and potted plants have an expected, even honored place in many ceremonies...Can you imagine funerals, weddings, or even church services without  flowers? Stuck for a good gift idea for a sick or grieving friend, flowers are an easy and welcome answer. 

What is it about flowers? 

My contention is that THEY are US! Unannounced they have become quiet metaphors for our being! and our living!

6&7
Acrylic +   5x7

Consider the daffodil.. my favorite Spring flower (why else would I choose to paint 100?)
They are brave little souls that poke through leaf mold and grow beneath the snow, lifting their tips tall and strong to reach the sun. Rooted in the ground, with the stored energy in their bulb pushing them upward, in their own time their buds break through the protective membranes that cover the leaf tips/developing flowers. Slowly they unfurl, becoming the flowers they are meant to be! How many shapes? How many colors and sizes? All the time standing tall, reaching for the heavens...

Detail from # 9

 Bees and pollen do their job, and maybe the gardener "deadheads" them, as they slip into old age with their greens, yellowing, feeding the bulb and drying up...dormant until the next year. A perfect cycle of life, cycle of an idea, cycle of a stage they are going through..they grow, flourish, and feed the next round...year after year, eventually multiplying into patches, onto hillsides, even filling groves.  

9
Acrylic+  4 x 12

The daffodil is only one example of what is flourishing out there, in all weather, all environments, part of our world to admire, and the admiration doesn't cost a penny. The flower, plant , whatever, could be in our garden, but it could be anywhere, and gives joy to whoever chooses to appreciate it in all its complexities...Consider the daffodil...
or any other plant, if only for a few breaths, and let it nourish your soul. 


**100 Daffodil Project,  87 to go!