The next shipment of Exquisite Flowers Calendar 2023 is set to arrive the 2nd week of January 2023, beautifully crafted with luxurious soft cover and unique photography of beautifully exquisite flowers selected from my 2022 Exquisite Flowers line of fine art gifts and products.
This series seeks to reframe the classical flower portraits of the European tradition through my lens, honoring my indigenous ancestors, and the lessons passed to me about the importance of Nature and preserving for future generations, as well as my complex human story & heritage.
ArtSpan Open Studios in November 2022 was my first in-person event since the de Saisset Museum group exhibit in 2018-2019 and the Indexical-Carmina Escobar public art commission in 2019, with the second portion in 2020 by Zoom.
One of the questions I was asked most often during open studios was, 'why flowers? and a marked departure from your exhibited photography?,' referring to my personal photography projects, such as the Landless Indian series from 2001-2021.
I wrote up an Artist Statement with a deeper dive if you are interested, and share here a bit about this year's focus on celebrating and honoring the Natural world as the globe continues to ride out wave after wave of COVID varients.
This series draws attention to the ways that Nature - by extension, flowers - showed up consistently day after day as a solid companion for so many of us in those worst times of lock-down and protective isolation.
I think of how the natural world rebounded in our time-out.
Animals, birds, the air, our ocean, every aspect of our natural world benefited and began to rejuvenate, while the bravest creatures ventured back out to roaming spots they had been pushed out generations ago.
We were given an opportunity to reimagine our futures as sustainable and in co-existence with Nature.
Their return a sign of hope in a time of great despair, few places were unscathed, while most communities were plunged into great loss.
Like many people around the world, I lost loved ones to COVID complications. Like many, I was unable to be there at their sides, an unthinkable reality I could not have dreamed.
I hope you will enjoy your 2023 Exquisite Flowers Calendar and check out any of the line of Exquisite art gifts.