Artist’s statement -
For centuries flowers have been associated with key moments in our lives. They commemorate births, weddings, funerals and ceremonies, they are the time-honoured gift between old friends and new. Flowers are symbols of spontaneous joy and yet at the same time, layered with the experience of the moment. Flowers can also summon memories of the part. Flowers have the power to evoke intense emotions, to encapsulate moods, to flood the heart with a memory. When I paint flowers they bring those memories, events in my life big and small, and most of all, the people associated with them, closer to me. Each flower has its own voice, its own attachment of memories and emotion.
I love how flowers are totally spontaneous and fill a space with energy and life. There is so much to learn from their natural rhythms and from their generous, unselfconscious beauty. They remind me of the simple things in life, the important things in life. Flowers have the power to make us look at life anew. The nature of flowers, their immediacy, helps us to live in the present. Look at them now, see them this moment as appreciated in all their richness, flowers need to be looked at - each one is a wonder and not to be wasted. Flowers invite us to slow down, to take the time to stop and stare. They remind us that true peace and beauty are not dependent on what we wear. Their brief lives have the power to bring our busy minds back to the here and now. To look long and deep into the face of a flower is meditation.
Ephemera
→ Jennifer Harmes: Bloom, 2003, exhibition card