Collaboration with Tellie Hunt (Hunt and Gather)

Artist statement - Flowers Still Bloom 2021

Flowers Still Bloom is a photo series created in collaboration with seven local florists exploring the themes of transformation and rebirth. Started in 2019, it became a way of processing and understanding the fundamental and spiritual transformation I was undergoing due to a personal health crisis unfolding concurrently. As my long-held notions of safety and mortality were uprooted, many suppressed emotions rose to the surface, awakening a deep need for connection to something greater, to a deeper self. The pandemic has intensified this need for a rebirth, personally and as a global community.

In this series the flowers represent nature and wholeness, while the models find themselves in various emotional entanglements with this cyclical force. Using moody, painterly light and motion and blur, we are invited to embrace the notion of surrender on a visceral level. The floral installation by Rosalie Villanueva further reminds of the ongoing cycles of nature, as flowers start to dry up and die over the course of the exhibit run.

As we start to release this inner conflict between our need to be in control and the cyclical nature of life, we are able to finally see ourselves as a part of this cycle. The rebirth is fully embracing and committing to a relationship with nature that is based on reciprocity, allowing for healing to occur. Ultimately this is a series about hope and surrender.