3) In The Garden Of Becoming

About My Journey Through Gardens Full of Flowers

As an artist still living in the shadow of cancer, I have recently been reflecting on my evolving body of work, In The Garden Of Becoming — This body is made up of seven collections spanning 2023 and going forward to 2027, that explore growth, memory, and transformation through bloom, cloth, and nature. The collections trace my creative lineage to a sculptor grandfather, a dressmaker mother, an engineer father, and an uncle whose London garden first sparked my love of flowers at about the age of eleven or twelve.

Having survived both a childhood civil war and a terminal diagnosis as an adult, my art is now encompassing large-scale ‘Petals Unbound’ watercolours that will be exhibited in West Sussex at the end of this month as well as the ongoing series ‘Of Petal and Wing’ {still in progress} — as a bold act of resilience and reclamation. In progress also are works that combine ‘Cloth, Bloom, Memory ‘as well as an interpretation of flower painting from the ‘Vanitas’ era. All of these works are meant as a lasting visual inheritance for my daughters and grand daughters.

Lithographic Prints of my Uncle Ray’s back garden (by my uncle ~ unsigned) at 13, Ashbridge Road, Leytonstone, London (undated - circa 1980)

Current & Future Collections — Early and Research Stages

Petals Unbound ~ From stillness to something ungoverned.

Cloth, Bloom, Memory ~ A cathartic collection shaped by pattern and inheritance, where fabric and bloom carry what endures in memory.

The Persistence of Bloom ~'Vanitas' , an argument of hope against doom.