My friend asked me what I loved so much about the cherry blossoms dotting Central Park in the springtime.
I said that I liked the fact that they were generous, that when you stand beneath their branching arms, you’re absolutely immersed in a world of white and pink fluff. They don’t offer just one bloom; they echo the creativity of a generous father who cannot help but lavish his children in good gifts.
I suppose it’s the same reason I don’t want a sweater whose sleeves barely real my wrists, I want to be enveloped, wrapped in roomy folds of wool stitches.
Don’t bother with a halfway hug, I my face buried in your chest. I’d like to be well acquainted with what laundry detergent you use.
My sunroof is open even at night, in hopes that I might feel swallowed up in the vastness of the night sky, brought close.
My Honda CRV will be on volume 38 most days, my entire body reverberating to the rhythm of a song.
I wonder if it’s all a shadow of the nature of our creation. I was not made for a love that fit just right, but rather one that enveloped my being, my time on earth a brief moment in its existence. Made never to know the end of its expanse, made to know a love that makes me feel small within its embrace.
some thoughts on cherry blossoms
This past spring I went to New York to visit my dear friends Lizzey and Grant, who had moved to the city about a year prior. The whole time leading up to the trip I was absolutely giddy, because I realized I would be there at the peak of cherry blossom season. I watched the Central Park Cherry Blossom Tracker like it was the morning news, and loaded up on film for the occasion. If it isn’t clear by looking at my work, there’s few things that delight my soul more than flowers of any kind, and so the Brooklyn Botanic gardens were a must-stop on the itinerary. The absolute delight of being overwhelmed by pink fluff was something I knew I wanted to remember in every creative form possible- so I wrote about it, developed my film from it, and ended up turning a culmination of these scenes into my newest painting, “Cherry Blossoms”.
the process
The week I got home I knew I wanted to spend some time painting the beloved trees. I once heard that your eye is the best teacher in the world of visual art, and I’ve found that to be overwhelmingly true. Being a painter has made me a better observer and a better rememberer of the beauty I pass in my days.
my “cherry blossoms” painting is available now for purchase.