Exploration
This is what I love about creative work. It’s not linear. You don’t march methodically from beginning to end.
Instead, it’s improvisational. You make decisions and respond to the environment second by second.
How can use these small galvanized buckets in a way that’s less obvious than simple vases? Will they stack and stay balanced? Look around the garage . . . What can I use to add texture and a hint of color for a surface? Ah, the roll-up mat I use for re-potting my house plants. That might work. Okay, my first attempt looks pretty good. Now, let’s try adding another element. Potting soil. Should it be in arranged in a pile or spread out. Okay, that idea is pretty good. But what if there were more flowers?
There will be revision, additions, subtractions. Ideas evolve as you engage with them. This exploration is how we learn to see. It’s what keeps my mind young.
This Is How I Like It
“For a few seconds, there we stand—observers and participants—utterly mortal in a world of vast, unspeakable beauty.”
—Jacoba Urist, from Cig Harvey’s “You an Orchestra You a Bomb”
I watch the children, fascinated by every little thing in the conservatory. They reach their hands into the small pools of water, and I am immediately carried back to my own days of parenting my sons. I am happy to walk the gardens and share in their joy. I take a picture of roses against a sky that I know will be blown out to white and decide that I like it that way.
Feels Like the First Time
As I walked the garden paths, camera-in-hand, visitors greeted me.
“Hey, you have your camera. Have you seen it? The first lotus flower of the season bloomed today. Sure would make a good picture!”
They were right.
The First Lotus Flower of the Season, Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, Spring 2026