{"title":"The Life of Flowers","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"what-changes-what-stays","title":"What Changes, What Stays","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne thing I have noticed from spending so much time observing flowers is that they all age differently. Some lose their form completely, collapsing in on themselves until they barely resemble the flower they once were. Others hold onto their shape for much longer, even as everything else begins to change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis calla lily caught my attention because of how much of its form remained intact while its color shifted dramatically. I am fascinated by how flowers do not simply fade but become something new.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe same happens with people. Some changes are easy to recognize because they alter our appearance, while others happen more gradually beneath the surface. This painting became a reflection on that balance between what changes and what stays, and how even when something remains recognizable, it is never the same as it was before.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"12\" x 16\"","offer_id":50110024253663,"sku":null,"price":192.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_5417_2f1c9cce-6b27-4a72-a676-923a65012963.jpg?v=1781273914"},{"product_id":"remember-that-you-have-to-die","title":"Remember That You Have to Die","description":"\u003cp\u003eAfter spending years working in a more refined style, I wanted to push myself toward something looser and less controlled. I have always struggled to leave parts of a painting unresolved or to allow underpainting and gesture to remain visible, but with this piece, I wanted to embrace that sense of in-between.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInspiration for this piece came from a photo I took in my senior studio while working with dried dahlias. Below them hung a note pinned to my wall that read, \"remember that you have to die.\" This translation comes from the Latin phrase memento mori, meaning \"remember (that you have) to die.\" Throughout art history, artists have used memento mori imagery to remind viewers of mortality and the fragility of life. During the 16th and 17th centuries, especially within Dutch vanitas painting, painters included wilting flowers, skulls, rotting fruit, extinguished candles, and hourglasses to reflect on the transience of beauty, wealth, pleasure, and life itself. These paintings encouraged viewers to recognize the fleeting nature of existence and value the time they have.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat idea has always deeply resonated with me. I do not see mortality as something purely tragic. To me, the fact that life ends gives it meaning, and the temporary nature of things is what makes them beautiful.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the future, I want to focus more on wilted flowers and signs of aging within my work. When we buy flowers, we instinctively choose the youngest and most perfect blooms while overlooking those with signs of age. I believe we often treat people the same way. We associate aging with a loss of value rather than recognizing the evidence of life in it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50115012165855,"sku":null,"price":1728.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_3937.jpg?v=1781398914"},{"product_id":"three-sisters","title":"Three Sisters","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis painting was inspired by my grandmother and her two sisters. The tulips became a way for me to think about the relationships between them, both during their lives and after death. The tulip on the left represents my grandmother, who died last, the one in the center represents my Aunt Julia, who died first, and the one on the right represents my Aunt Peggy, who died in between them and lived more separately from the rest of the family and someone never knew.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuring the final week of my grandmother's life, she often spoke about seeing her sisters waiting for her, their hands stretched out toward her. Even though the three of them experienced distance and separation from each other in very different ways, I like to imagine that in death they are finally together again. Through the composition and spacing of the flowers, I wanted to hold onto both that sense of closeness and distance while also imagining a reunion beyond this life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"16\" x 20\"","offer_id":50115012591839,"sku":null,"price":320.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_4096.jpg?v=1781399883"},{"product_id":"life-holding-life","title":"Life Holding Life","description":"\u003cp\u003eInspiration for this painting came from one of the many moments when I stopped before throwing a flower away. I had been closely observing this calla lily as it began to die, noting how its form collapsed and how the colors shifted over time.This was the final moment of my observation, and I became very aware that I was holding something that I had once seen full of life, now slowly disappearing. That tension became the foundation of this piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLately, I have been in a very experimental place with my work, allowing more underpainting to remain visible and pushing myself away from a fully refined surface. I focused heavily on texture, edge relationships, and allowing gesture to stay visible, especially within my hand itself. My hand became the most abstracted and least refined part of the painting because when I observe flowers closely, they become the only thing I really see. Everything else starts to fall away. In contrast, the most refined parts of the calla lily are the areas that are the most wilted. Those sections felt the most important for me to fully understand and capture because they held the strongest evidence of time.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"16\" x 20\"","offer_id":50115049947359,"sku":null,"price":320.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_4111.jpg?v=1781400655"},{"product_id":"cut-down","title":"Cut Down","description":"\u003cp\u003eInspiration for this painting came from seeing a tulip growing outside of my studio that I had been looking forward to watching bloom. Its life was cut short while the grass was being cut, and I walked outside to find it fallen over. Seeing it made me think about how we are always told that life can change or end quickly, yet never fully believe it until we are faced with it ourselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI had been expecting to continue watching it grow and see how its form and colors would change over time. Instead, that observation ended unexpectedly. Even though it was just a flower, I kept thinking about how quickly something can shift from possibility and anticipation into memory.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"24\" x 30\"","offer_id":50115053420767,"sku":null,"price":720.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_4547.jpg?v=1781401569"},{"product_id":"discarded","title":"Discarded","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis painting came from thinking about how quickly we decide something no longer deserves to take up space. Flowers get thrown away all the time once their forms begin to collapse, even though so much of their color and presence is still there.! kept noticing how some flowers almost become more visually intense as they wilt, with colors shifting in ways that feel even more alive than when they were fully blooming.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe flowers in this painting were sitting inside a trash can, waiting to be taken out, but I could not stop looking at them. There was still so much happening within them. It made me think about how easily we discard things once they stop appearing the way we expect, even when beauty and life are still very present.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"24\" x 30\"","offer_id":50115053912287,"sku":null,"price":720.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_4924.jpg?v=1781401788"},{"product_id":"curling-inward","title":"Curling Inward","description":"\u003cp\u003eInspiration for this piece came from noticing how differently flowers age depending on where they spend their lives. We often think of wilting flowers as those sitting in a vase at home, but flowers growing outside wilt in very different ways. The iris in this painting grew outdoors, where exposure to the sun and wind caused its petals to slowly curl inward as it aged. I was drawn to how dramatically its form transformed while remaining unmistakably an iris.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I observe flowers, I often think about the ways they mirror our own lives. Just as flowers age differently depending on their environment, people are shaped by where they grow up, what they experience, and the conditions they move through over the course of their lives. No two flowers wilt in the same way, and no two people age in the same way. This painting became a way for me to think about how change, aging, and transformation are influenced by the world around us while remaining essential to who we are.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"20\" x 20\"","offer_id":50115531899103,"sku":null,"price":400.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_4988.jpg?v=1781452095"},{"product_id":"at-different-rates","title":"At Different Rates","description":"\u003cp\u003eAll flowers age at different rates, even when they share the same vase and environment. In the arrangement I have been studying recently, the snapdragon began to wilt much more quickly than the tulips and calla lily, and that contrast became the focus of this piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWatching them together made me think about how similar this is to people. We all move through life at different rates, shaped by our experiences, circumstances, and the environments we exist within. Some changes become visible earlier, while others take much longer to appear. Even when we seem to be moving through the same moments side by side, our experiences of time are never exactly the same.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI often think about flowers as mirrors of the human experience, and this painting became a way of reflecting on how aging is not a uniform process. Just as no two flowers wilt in exactly the same way, no two people grow older in exactly the same way either.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"20\" x 20\"","offer_id":50115532062943,"sku":null,"price":400.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_5049.jpg?v=1781452284"},{"product_id":"four-ways-of-letting-go","title":"Four Ways of Letting Go","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the things I love most about tulips is how differently they wilt. They twist, curl, and bend in completely unique ways, almost as if each flower is responding to time differently.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis painting grew out of thinking about how similar that is to people. No two lives unfold in exactly the same way, and no two people experience aging the same way. Yet eventually we all arrive at the same place. These tulips may share an ending, but each one carries its own story in the way it got there.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"18\" x 24\"","offer_id":50115532816607,"sku":null,"price":432.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_5117_c2a7c00a-2b96-4abf-bf8b-d8bfd4004fd5.jpg?v=1781452479"},{"product_id":"what-the-red-became","title":"What the Red Became","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the things that fascinates me most about flowers is how dramatically their colors change over time. These tulips began as a bright, vibrant red, but as they aged, they slowly shifted into deep purples and burgundy tones. Watching that transformation unfold became the inspiration for this painting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eColor has always been the first thing that draws me in. It is what led me to painting in the first place, and it continues to be the starting point for every piece I make. While working on these tulips, I found myself less interested in documenting the flowers themselves and more interested in following where the color was going. Even though they were nearing the end of their lives, they felt anything but dull. Their colors became richer, more complex, and in many ways more surprising than when they tirst bloomed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI often think about flowers as mirrors of the human experience, and this color shift made me think about how people change over time as well. Age, experience, grief, joy, and memory all leave their mark on us. Just as these tulips transformed from bright red into deep purple, we are constantly becoming new versions of ourselves while still remaining recognizably who we are.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"30\" x 40\"","offer_id":50115533242591,"sku":null,"price":1200.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_5223.jpg?v=1781452632"},{"product_id":"going-staying-beginning","title":"Going, Staying, Beginning","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis painting brings together three roses at very different points in their lives. One is just beginning, still waiting to open. One is fully present, holding onto most of its petals. Another is nearly gone, with only a single petal remaining.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat drew me to this arrangement was seeing all three stages existing together in the same space. Looking at them made me think about how life is always unfolding around us in this way. There are people just entering the world, people living through the middle of their lives, and people approaching the end of theirs. We all exist alongside one another, even though we are moving through very different stages in life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"12\" x 12\"","offer_id":50115539402975,"sku":null,"price":144.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_5527.jpg?v=1781453155"},{"product_id":"before-their-time","title":"Before Their Time","description":"\u003cp\u003eThese rosebuds made me think about the lives that end before they have the chance to experience all that was ahead of them. We tend to imagine life moving forward in a certain way. We assume there will be more time, more experiences, and more opportunities waiting for us.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe are reminded that life can change in an instant, but it often feels distant until it happens to someone we know or love. This painting reflects on that reality and on the uncertainty that exists beneath even our most certain expectations for the future.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"10\" x 10\"","offer_id":50115542122719,"sku":null,"price":100.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_5593.jpg?v=1781453225"},{"product_id":"far-from-gone","title":"Far From Gone","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis tulip has already fallen over, but it is far from gone. Its color is still vibrant, its petals still hold their shape, and it still has plenty of life left in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat interests me is how often we assume visible change means something is nearing its end. With both flowers and people, that is not always true. Sometimes, the first signs of aging, change, or struggle become visible long before someone or something is actually near the end. We tend to see those changes and make assumptions about how much has been lost, but there is often much more life left than we realize. This painting became a way of looking at that space between the first visible changes and the point where a flower's life has ended.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"12\" x 12\"","offer_id":50121200926943,"sku":null,"price":144.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_5643.jpg?v=1783041566"},{"product_id":"generations","title":"Generations","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis painting grew out of thinking about how age becomes visible. The central calla lily shows clear signs of aging through the browning and crinkling along its petal, while the others retain smoother surtaces and more detined torms. That contrast became the focus of the piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs I worked, I started thinking about the flowers almost as members of the same family. They share the same structure and characteristics, but each exists at a different stage of life. A grandparent, a parent, and children can all stand together and look noticeably different because of age, while still resembling one another. I became interested in that balance between change and in how visible signs of aging can alter appearance without erasing the connections that remain.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"30\" x 40\"","offer_id":50482143068383,"sku":null,"price":1200.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_5982.jpg?v=1782256902"},{"product_id":"growing-together","title":"Growing Together","description":"\u003cp\u003eLately, I've been thinking about relationships built over decades. Whether it's a friendship, a partnership, or family, there comes a point where your lives become so intertwined that it's difficult to separate one story from the other. You influence each other in quiet ways, growing alongside one another until parts of who you are have been shaped by each other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese lilies are no longer at the beginning of their lives. The purple beginning to spread through their petals hints at the passage of time, but they are still full of movement, color, and life. I was interested in that stage where change has become visible but doesn't diminish what is there. If anything, the years make the relationship richer. Like the flowers, we continue to grow together, carrying pieces of one another as we move through life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott","offers":[{"title":"30\" x 48\"","offer_id":50531030663391,"sku":null,"price":1440.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_6216.jpg?v=1783042062"},{"product_id":"cut-short","title":"Cut Short","description":"\u003cp\u003eThese tulips never reached the later stages of their lives. A storm came through before they had the chance. Their stems are still standing, but each flower has lost nearly all of its petals, leaving only one behind. The falling petals mark the moment everything changed, showing how quickly a life can take an unexpected turn. Painting them made me think about how, just like these flowers, people’s lives can be cut short without warning. We never know how much time we have, which makes every stage of life so precious.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott ","offers":[{"title":"18\" x 24\"","offer_id":50531033448671,"sku":null,"price":432.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_6338.jpg?v=1783372095"},{"product_id":"one-ending-two-beginnings","title":"One Ending, Two Beginnings","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis painting looks at what it means to reach the end of one life while others are only just beginning. The central flower carries all the marks of having lived through every stage, while the unopened buds still have their entire lives ahead of them. I was interested in placing these moments side by side and thinking about how every life exists within a larger cycle. One comes to an end as another quietly begins, reminding us that growth, change, and loss are never separate from one another.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott ","offers":[{"title":"10\" x 10\"","offer_id":50531033776351,"sku":null,"price":100.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_6312.jpg?v=1783372324"},{"product_id":"what-is-to-come","title":"What is to Come","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhile working on this painting, I was contemplating how we often separate different stages of life, even though they never can be separated. The petals moving from one flower towards the other became a reminder that time is always moving forward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe older sunflower is not just an ending, just as the younger one is not just a beginning. They are connected by the same life, simply existing at different moments within it. Through this painting, I wanted to discuss the way we view aging in both flowers and people, and how beauty continues to exist even as color, form, and our understanding of one another change.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott ","offers":[{"title":"30\" x 40\"","offer_id":50531039609055,"sku":null,"price":1200.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_6406.jpg?v=1783373019"},{"product_id":"what-grows-what-fades","title":"What Grows, What Fades","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis painting looks at two different stages of life existing beside each other. The flower on the left is past its prime but not fully wilted, while the bud on the right is still beginning to grow. I became really interested in how differently I approached painting each of them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe bud is painted in a much more refined way with brighter color and no underpainting showing through, while the older flower has areas that feel more unstable and unresolved. Some parts remain refined while others start to break apart. I wanted the surface of the painting itself to reflect the differences between new life and aging, and the way time slowly changes both form and color.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott ","offers":[{"title":"14\" x 14\"","offer_id":50563974660319,"sku":null,"price":196.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_43674.jpg?v=1783879166"},{"product_id":"first-to-droop","title":"First to Droop","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis painting looks at the earliest visible signs of change. The tulip is still largely holding the form it had when it was younger, but one petal has begun to fall away. That small shift changes how we see the entire flower.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWhen I study flowers over time, I am always interested in how aging rarely happens all at once. Certain parts change before others. Some areas soften, droop, or lose their structure while the rest remains familiar. It reminds me of how we experience aging as people. The first signs are often subtle, but once they appear, they change how we understand everything that follows. This painting focuses on that moment between seeming unchanged and becoming something new.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott ","offers":[{"title":"12\" x 16\"","offer_id":50563974594783,"sku":null,"price":192.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_53842.jpg?v=1783879388"},{"product_id":"the-shape-we-take","title":"The Shape We Keep","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe first thing a sunflower loses is what we notice most. Its bright yellow petals curl, dry, and eventually fall away, but so much of the flower remains. The green leaves beneath the petals still hold their shape, the stem stays strong, and the flower continues to stand long after the color that first drew us in has disappeared. I was struck by how sturdy sunflowers are, even near the end of their lives. They don’t immediately collapse. Instead, they continue to hold themselves together, carrying the weight of the lived experience.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIt made me think about how easily we confuse visible change with decline. As we grow older, the qualities people notice first begin to change, but those outward changes say very little about what remains underneath. Strength, character, memory, and experience don’t disappear as quickly as youth does. This painting is about recognizing the parts of us that endure, even after the things that once defined our appearance have begun to fade.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott ","offers":[{"title":"30\" x 48\"","offer_id":50563974562015,"sku":null,"price":1440.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_6598.jpg?v=1783886264"},{"product_id":"still-moving","title":"Still Moving","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the reasons I am so drawn to tulips is that they never seem completely still. Even after they have fully wilted, they continue to twist, curl, and move in unexpected directions. Some of the most dramatic changes in their form happen long after they have passed what most people would consider their prime.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI wanted this painting to focus on that movement. Even though this tulip is fully wilted, it still feels full of energy. Its petals continue to fold and turn, creating new shapes and relationships. I often think about flowers as mirrors of the human experience, and this tulip reminded me that change does not stop once we reach a certain stage of life. We continue to grow, shift, and transform for as long as we are here.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott ","offers":[{"title":"8\" x 10\"","offer_id":50563974365407,"sku":null,"price":80.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_5456.jpg?v=1783881079"},{"product_id":"visible-sign","title":"Visible Sign","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the things I find most interesting about flowers is that change rarely happens all at once. Often there is a small area that begins to fade or break down while the rest of the flower still appears full of life.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis calla lily caught my attention because of that contrast. The brown section running through the center felt like the first visible sign of time passing, while the rest of the flower continued to hold its shape and color. I often think about flowers as mirrors of the human experience, and this piece became a reflection on how change usually arrives gradually. There is often a moment where the first signs appear, long before everything else follows.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott ","offers":[{"title":"8\" x 10\"","offer_id":50563974332639,"sku":null,"price":80.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_54362.jpg?v=1783886780"},{"product_id":"colors-that-stayed","title":"Colors That Stayed","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the things that keeps me returning to flowers is how unpredictable their changes can be. As flowers age, some colors deepen while others become lighter. Certain areas seem to lose color entirely while others become more intense than they were when the flower was first in bloom.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis iris had already lost much of the vibrant color I associate with it, but in its place were subtle shifts and unexpected combinations that only appeared because it had reached this stage of its life. I often think about how similar this is to people. As we move through different stages of life, some parts of us become more pronounced while others soften or fade. Change is rarely uniform. It happens unevenly, revealing new qualities while transforming old ones. This painting became a way of paying attention to those changes and to the beauty that can still be found within them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott ","offers":[{"title":"12\" x 16\"","offer_id":50563974267103,"sku":null,"price":192.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_5490.jpg?v=1783886956"},{"product_id":"held-together","title":"Held Together","description":"\u003cp\u003eI think a lot about how dramatically both color and form change over the course of a life. In this painting, the three ranunculuses exist simultaneously at different stages. One is just beginning to show signs of change, one is at its fullest, and one has already reached the end of its life cycle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLooking at them together made me think about how we move through life differently. There are moments when we are growing, moments when we feel most like ourselves, and moments when we begin to let go of what once defined us.\u003cbr\u003eThe flowers are all the same species, yet they look completely different depending on where they are in their lives. Change is constant, but it does not happen all at once. The hand holding them together became a way to connect those stages and recognize them as part of the same experience.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott ","offers":[{"title":"24\" x 30\"","offer_id":50563974136031,"sku":null,"price":720.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_5711.jpg?v=1783887238"},{"product_id":"where-the-purple-goes","title":"Where the Purple Goes","description":"\u003cp\u003eI wanted this painting to feel as if the irises were slowly releasing themselves into the space around them. The background became an extension of the irises, almost like their color and energy are drifting outward rather than disappearing completely.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe flowers are not fully wilted yet, but they are in that in between stage where change becomes unavoidable. As parts of the irises begin to fall away, the painting became less about death itself and more about transformation. I kept thinking about how in nature, life is constantly shifting into something else. Even as something fades, new life and energy continue forming all around it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elke Ott ","offers":[{"title":"16\" x 20\"","offer_id":50566751060191,"sku":null,"price":320.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0814\/0593\/5839\/files\/IMG_4887.jpg?v=1783966103"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.elkeott.com\/collections\/frontpage.oembed?page=3","provider":"Elke Ott ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}