Flowers

During the summers when I was a kid, when I wasn't at the swimming pool, I loved to wander through the woods that surrounded my neighborhood. My neighbor would bring her dog, and she and I would spend hours roaming around. We would chat about the things that were so very important to 11 and 12 year old girls, and I would collect rocks. For some reason, I never really paid attention to the flora, but I would have pockets full of interesting rocks by summer's end.

I was never a big plant or flower person. My mother had plants around the porch and patio, and grew Elephant Ears in her tiny "garden". My sister and I liked to try to jump over the Elephant Ears when she wasn't paying attention, and the plants were nice enough, but I wasn't captivated. I think my disinterest orginated when she would make us water them, or drag us to those hot-ass-outdoor-Texas nurseries which always seemed to be located somewhere in BFE, about 2 minutes from the center of the sun.

Besides that, I always thought that flowers were too "girly". I mean they were pretty and smelled nice, but my interest in them was never genuine. Until recently. Until I finally noticed that, yes, they are very girly- and it's a truly beautiful thing about them. They so pure and yet sensual, erotic but yet nearly banal in their simplicity, that I have become completely fascinated.

The overt, blatant resemblance of certain blossoms to the human female anatomy screams for recognition and discussion. During my brief foray I have discovered painters that I didn't know, poets whose work I had never the pleasure, and photographers with amazingly clever eyes and lenses.

I have started working on a line of cards focusing on some of the photographs I have discovered, and I am sure I will yammering on about the topic, which most of you are probably well aware of, so be advised.

Here are a couple of shots of some of the more obvious flowers of which I speak. Enjoy.