One 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.
This 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.
