Sorry for the delayed update, but I blinked and spring had sprung! I wanted to share with y'all this month's flower for my monthly series of paintings that I turn into a zine for my patreons over on Patreon. This month, as spring is springing and they're starting to bloom (at least here in Seattle), I'll be focusing on the daffodil.
Last fall, I quietly started choosing one flower a month and making my art centered around it. I mentioned it to my patrons, but I didn't make too much of a fuss about it because I was still figuring it out. But a couple months later, I can say that I've really been enjoying it. By choosing a specific plant, I take away some of the paralysis around "what should I paint?" because I've already answered that question. So I get to allow myself to just focus on more deeply exploring that one thing instead of getting overwhelmed by the possibilities.
Alongside just exploring the plants through painting and drawing, I research the symbolism and history of the flowers and use the themes there to determine which poems I choose to add to the paintings. I've been using Flowerpedia by Cheralyn Darcy as a useful reference, as well as various internet resources asI dig a little deeper. It's been a fun adventure getting to explore both the external shape of the plants while I paint them and then the internal layers and meanings as I add in the poetry.
I'll be doing this more officially through the rest of 2021. You'll see me announce the month's theme at the beginning of the month here, then start sharing the work as I'm creating it (especially on my Instagram, though I'll try to write some blog posts about works-in-progress), and then at the end of the month I'll put many of the pieces into the monthly zine I ship to my mail art patrons, and then I'll release the original pieces for sale!
