Artist Statement: Recently I’ve moved from abstract work with suggestive floral imagery to more explicitly floral work with some abstracted elements and pattern-work. I started painting flowers to cope with the anxiety and uncertainty that everyone felt when the pandemic began. I felt the need to make joyful work. The mandatory quarantine order also began in the spring, so in a sense I was also trying to experience that season in way I wasn’t able to. Flowers are hopeful and beautiful and full of vibrant color—all things we need now more than ever. Flowers are also delicate and ephemeral and by painting them you can preserve that nature against the ravages of time.