Drie's Curtain Tie-Backs

My friend Drie and I made a trade this summer; a painting for a set of flowers that would "punctuate" her curtain tie-backs in her guest bedroom. I thought it would be a great application of the ribbon flowers (and I was a bit jealous that I hadn't thought of the idea!).

I decided to do one that was a portrait of her family; they have been through so much, yet keep such an optimistic and peaceful outlook. Drie is also a painter who paints really great abstract images of Nature and all of her faces, ranging from micro to macroscopic, from generous to cruel. So, I looked to a funky little rose bush in my garden, which, at any given time, seems to have flowers blooming, flowers fading, flowers dying, flowers turning to hips, and finally just hips. It is a great source to witness the growing and the dying happening so quietly and unassumedly, so, well, naturally. I found some great Hanah silk at Nancy's that was the color of my little rose bush, white with pink edges, as well as a ribbon that was the color of them once the bloom had died, and then one that resembled the the almost flourescent red of the rose hips.

It was a great learning experience because I was both making flowers to look real, then on top of that, making the same type of flower in its different stages. Also, since the tie-backs are two pieces, one for each side of the window, it lent itself to becoming a diptych. So, you can follow the process from the rose hip on the right-hand side, clockwise through both pieces, with the left -hand piece showing all beauty and sadness of the fleeting bloom, and then returning to the right-hand side, clockwise still, to the dying and the rebirth of the blooms. Perhaps the most distinct points of this dichotomy, shown in the right-hand tie-back, is the dead bloom yielding the rosehip directly. It is a remarkable and obvious story of the cycle of death and birth.

So, I believe that Drie really appreciated the subtle representation of the cycle, as did her husband, Kabran, an ND, on the merits of the science of the representation. I, too, learned a lot about my little rose bush just by observing the state of it. I felt like a Naturalist! Anyway, I really had a lot of fun making this piece, since I rarely get to make BIG things! Thanks, Drie!