Blossom

(Photo coming soon)
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approx. 20" x 20"

My dear friend Virginia Geck inspired this mask.  A natural encourager, she helps me to dream big and to expect good things.  When I lose my way, she gently nudges me back to my path.

I wanted make a mask to show what she means to me and how she will forever live in me.  But how hard to come up with one image to do that!  Yet a recurrent thought of "Her words help us bloom and grow," brought up the image of a mask painted like a big bright flower.  Silky petals (made from pantyhose that I dyed) crest the face.  From my files I gathered some of her writings and used them as "soil." Tendrils of lush vines encircle the mask and creep over the frame, a reminder of loving connections, ties that bind and bond, and growth that continues forever.  Thank you, Virginia, for tending our gardens.

She says:

“I bloom and grow like a tropical vine, my tendrils creeping through the garden, reaching, reaching, over and through obstacles, out past my little dreams. Hard clods of limitations crack open, making more blossoms and fruit and seeds of creativity that scatter in the wind and in the compost, to grow again, and again.”