My assistant (above) and I are taking a break together.
Callas are my favorite flowers to photograph, followed closely by wild Irises and the beautiful wildflowers Maria brings me from the pasture and the woods. They all kiss my imagination and stir something within me.
Today, I focused on sensuality and grace, a beautiful mix between Irisis and Callas. Sigmund Freud sparked a big fuss when he said the Calls were sensual and sexual; Georgia O’Keeffe, who seemed clearly to reflect their apparent sensuality, denied they were sensual to her at all, probably a wise thing to say at the time. She never liked it more than I do when strangers tell me what I’m thinking.
I don’t see the Callas as alluring in a sexual way but seductive in their grace, curves, and dignity. Come and take a look today and see what you think.
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Flower Poem, Mary Oliver
‘I had a dog who loved flowers. Briskly, she went through the fields, yet paused for the honeysuckle or the rose, her dark head and her wet nose touching the face of everyone with its petals of silk with its fragrance rising into the air where the bees, their bodies heavy with pollen hovered – and easily she adored every blossom not in the serious, careful way that we choose this blossom or that blossom the way we praise or don’t praise – the way we love or don’t love – but the way we long to be – that happy in the heaven of earth – that wild, that loving.’
– Dog, Flower, Dark. — Mary Oliver.
