"During the start of the pandemic, my artwork changed. It transitioned from abstract to realistic, with peonies often the subject. I also turned 50 in a healthy body that had eluded me in my younger years. As I contemplate the change in my artwork, I continue to ask questions: what is beauty, what makes something beautiful, and is something still beautiful as it evolves? The definition of beauty can be dictated upon us by those with more power and society as a whole. What is considered beautiful often faces violence and can even be destroyed. These works are a reflection of the concept of beauty at this point in my life being a woman after cancer, after a pandemic, and after turning 50. These oil paintings on wood panels capture both the timeless and the fleeting. The moments of perfection and perfection blighted. Of beauty and beauty violated. Painted thinly and rarely with more than one layer of paint, they are both laborious and instant, intentional and intuitive. Through these contrasting ideas and practices, I am continuing my efforts to become not just whole, but holy.” Since earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Calvin College, Tolsma Harlow has exhibited in West Michigan and her work has been collected nationally and internationally. Her passion for the arts developed early in life when she expressed an interest in drawing, and she was delighted to discover that she could continue making art as a professional artist. Today she works in oil paint and encaustic.