ARC Purchase Awards

“The myth of Proserpina represents the changing of the seasons. Pomegranates represent fidelity and are an important part of the myth. Proserpina eats 6 pomegranate seeds in the underworld, and this condemns her to stay there. She is finally saved and must spend only 6 months in the underworld and 6 months on earth with her mother.”

“Each year, there is a cyclical rebirth in spring. It is always unknown whether life will bloom. It can emerge slowly and appear abstract, just like human life. The flying, abstract, translucent flowers represent the birth or bloom of a new life and emerge towards Flora (the goddess of spring) in the middle ground before coming to life in her hair, symbolizing the waterfall of life, in the foreground. I chose hair as it too has stages of life: from anagen to telogen. Her shirt was white, but

I chose to bring a pattern of the flowers into her skin and top, moving down and back into her. The chosen colors of aqua, violet, yellow, and pink are soft, representing life in the beginning.

Flora gazes softly and confidently at the viewers, assuring us the life cycle will always be.”