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Artist Statement

I began creating flower images in 2002 after the death of a favorite person left me pondering the fleeting lives of flowers and people. While walking in my garden images of flower arrays came to me. I imagined flower mandalas that were reminiscent of suzanies from Uzbekistan and the vivid garlands of fresh blossoms I had seen used as religious offerings in Thailand. Using the mandala, the circular form that in Eastern religions represents the universe, I meticulously arrange

flowers from the garden into combinations of color and form that exaggerate the vibrancy of both. Sometimes I slice into buds and append blossoms onto one another. As with all my work, a closer look at the subject reveals hidden secrets – in this case, the flowers’ hairy, sticky, or poisonous parts; pollen; seeds; and the occasional insect.

To make these mandala images, I use the scanner like a large-format camera. I lay flowers directly onto it,

allowing pollen and other flower stuff to fall onto the glass and become part of the image. When the high-resolution scans are enlarged, amazing details and natural structures emerge. Every flower mandala is unique to a moment in time, represents what is in bloom on the day I made it. Long after I began making these images, I was fascinated to learn that Carl Jung had written that people are drawn to the mandala shape during troubled times because of its healing properties.

My “Flower Mandalas” are printed with archival inks on 100% rag paper. The 44” x 66” prints are produced in limited editions of three.

References

Artnet.com Review, 2007

“No Place Like Home,” Metroland, 2005

TENbyTEN Interview, 2000

Portia Munson CV