After 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.
Inspiration 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.
That 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.
In 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.
