Process
I am enthralled by beautiful images, including pictures of people or obscure images of pure, isolated subjects. Flowers have this quality, as do the faces of people. So, too, can a landscape radiate pure beauty, untouched by the human hand. This purity is a recurring theme in my work.
One day I was working on a new painting; the still life of a flower that was gradually wilting and losing its beauty. This work began a series for me - it was my "transition painting". I thought, we attempt to preserve the beauty of flowers in a vase by adding packets of chemicals to keep them looking fresh. We feed them, and every day give them fresh water, which is the basis of all life. At that moment I realized that this instinct to keep flowers alive and looking beautiful for as long as one can is universal. When a flower fades, our response is spontaneous: we toss the flowers away; they are no longer suitable to display; we do not want to observe the process of dying.
I started thinking about this. We try to possess and save beauty. In wax museums we display facsimiles of beautiful people we want to remember. In this way we preserve the immediacy of the beauty we perceive. Princess Diana is no longer alive, but some part of her beauty remains preserved, rescued forever in wax. This is the reason I started conserving the beauty of the Narcissus in wax. The Narcissus illustrates so well the construct beauty/fragility. From the very moment the flower is harvested, it no longer possesses the fullness of its beauty. For this series I created giclees under the title Narcissus Satori. "Satori" means the absolute peak of beauty. Notably, five minutes after I completed my setup work the beauty of the Narcissus faded.
The process of photography is ideal because it requires absolute collaboration between the subject and the artist. The Narcissus cooperates. In an attempt to maintain a vigil over the flower as it ferments, I keep the reserve, strain it, and make ink from the liquid. I incorporate the ink into my work, thus saving its very vitality.
In the oil paintings I start with white flowers. I add black and other colours only afterwards. After that I apply one or more layers of flowers. It took me two years to complete one of the canvases; there may be as many as fifty layers on it. The slow pace of this work is evidence of a real hesitation to discard the beautiful but fading narcissus.
This oil painting series is called Memories of the Narcissus. It examines the recollection process… how we remember people or flowers or landscape. When you look at the Narcissus and then shut your eyes, the image you see on your retina is the memory of the flower. People find my works "soulful" and that is how it should be. These are the memories you cherish in your soul. The whiteness of the flowers imparts tranquility, the precursor to reflection. The presence of white restores us.
In a hectic life, white flowers provide a moment of rest for our eyes.