On Awakening, Open Call

Lotus Still-Life, digital pigmented ink on canvas, 38”x 25.4” and framed, 40” x 27.4” ©️ E.A. Kahane

For a recent open call, I chose to submit an image from my flowers series, specifically of the lotus and its sister pond flowers, because they amplify visually the transitional period of the terrible pandemic from darkness into light.  The theme was Awakening, and the beauty of these flowers also reflects the many silver linings, not obvious when submerged in darkness, but revealed as we emerge from our Covid Year.  Many found a greater closeness with their loved ones, friends, and a new appreciation for touching and hugging.  The slower pace gave us more time to think, to reflect, and to plan for the future, to better understand what really matters.  From the sadness of loss of loved ones, of time and opportunities, came a richer appreciation of life itself.  Taking time to smell the flowers has a whole new meaning.
 
I printed the images on canvas to give them a painterly quality.  There is a certain Zen in the collective beauty of the pond flowers: nature’s own design, so magnificent in color and silky texture, further enhanced by its background of other materials: pottery, weathered shingles, the copper table, which creates a mystical feeling.