a tale of

floral invetabilities

I wanted to showcase my close relation with floral motifs. More than an aesthetic ornament, flowers and their place within ecological contexts have always been of interest to me. I took my namesake to heart at a young age, and have always admired the anatomy, symbolism, and abundance associated with floral beings.

As an artist, community organizer and designer, they have offered: inspiration for abstract & imaginative forms; comforting symbols of home and resistance; and exemplified the abundance and plurality of life. In other words, they’ve ruled my life in more ways than one…

I put this page together to show a small sample of imagery I’ve captured in the last 12 months alone (trust me this page would be endless if we went any further back in time) and how these beings have influenced my practice (and my life).

Listening to the audio explanation of Charmaine Watkiss’s various works, her work strung together connections ebetween ancestral heritage, resistance to slavery and healign quality of certain buds, flowers and fruits. I wept heavily. In the exhibition.

my grandmother’s floral bridal headpiece is a new sight for me as I uncover our family’s archive’s in closets that have been waiting years for our curiosity and our company

pea plants having their moment in my aunt’s flourishing garden in Aaley, Lebanon

this year in May, I had the pleasure of working with and learning from housing movements in Sao Paulo, Brazil as part of our master’s fieldwork. We discussed so much on struggle, labors of endurance and existing in a fight that is constantly unfolding, bearing fruit at times, and imposed scarcities at other times.

I noticed this dreamy and well-hidden art piece, comparatively different than the wall art and installations at the building’s entrance. The blue & pink bubbles, partially unidentifiable flower species, and tall water vase made for a symphony of abundance, tucked away , quiet fittingly, in the community kitchens of the housing occupation we were visiting.

Raoul Dufy, at Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris.

‘Flower inception’ is what first came to mind when I saw this. Need I say more?

One might think that at a museum like Musée d'Orsay that I would get more hung up seeing classics like Monet’s ‘Woman with a Parasol’ or the ‘Rouen Cathedral’ series, or Degas’ ‘Little Dancer,’ or even Van Gogh’s well-crowded ‘Starry Night.’

But no painting made me gasp more audibly and stole my gaze like Van Gogh’s ‘Japanese Vase.’ I told my friend who I had been visiting in Paris and who so kindly walked me through the Orsay, that art is much simpler than we think. There’s something about our brain chemistry that becomes fulfilled, like an itch, by how things are composed, by their texture, arrangement, color, all the sorts. And that itch isn’t the same for everyone. But for me, I could’ve stayed sat ther ein the darkin front of this painting for hours, as if to decode it, and yet would have found no reply. Just fascination.

so, what of inspiration?

Natalia Goncharova’s ‘Gardening’ (1908) immediately caught my eye on my first ever visit at the Tate Modern, and this tribute to rural life hit home for me.

my beloved painting is centered around the Iris Damascena which you can read up on here

In my master’s research, my own artistic experimentations, and even in an ongoing grant I’m working on, the theme of abundance has followed me around. On the left is a photo I took from Augustus John’s biography at a Waterstones last year in late September of a female gardener. She has been haunting my dreams for months now.

She tells me of harvesting, of weeding, of the connection between seeds and budding possibilities and world-building. She tells me of care-based labor, of tending to the earth, of the inevitability of seasons, of bloom and then withering, and to me all are beautiful. And I hope it is clear that by perusing through this page and my website, that these motifs can be found all over, and they mean much more to me than simple ornamentation, but are synapses for inspiring our relation to each other and the world and our local microecologies.

On that point, much of my work is based on my diasporic identity as a Lebanese person, and I search for such connections to growth, harvest, and bloom in my own life, family and artwork from the region. On the right is a close up of Abdel Hamid Baalbaki’s painting, ‘Deir Yassin,’ at Sursock Museum, Beirut, as part of a tribute exhibition which I reflected on this last September.

As articulated by Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, Baalbaki’s imagery “recalls the Israeli killing of Palestinians in one small town in 1948 through an otherworldly language of white doves, hooded figures, and liberated souls. The compositional space is flat, the figures folkloric. A scene alluding to death and destruction is everywhere festooned with flowers.” The juxtaposition is eerily ethereal and perhaps (in my view) gives a visual meaning the unavoidable politics of life- and death-making.

With these last couple months being full of connections to life-making, floral symbols, and dedication to the details, I continue to find messages in my little, processual and sometimes unexpected encounters with floral friends.

Whether in this vintage Lebanese post stamp I bought recently, or in creating these ‘florally collaged’ ceramics I’m working on these days, or in my little adventures in the city, as I show below.

All to say, flowers stay with me in every part of my life, and I care to see them appreciated in every possible way.

Hand stitched Brooch I got in Paris of Hydrangeas, my favorite flower this last summer

Saw this floral lamp in Brighton, wish it came home with me

When I started as an artist, my first real mentor and art teacher had us learn to draw flowers by sketching and watercolor painting lilies, and since then I can never get over their harmonious composition, even when they aren't in bloom... (pictured in my master's dorm, drawing these for future reference)

I began an obsession with irises about 2 years ago, hence my desire to capture any I see in 'the wild'

Museum of the Home has a gorgeous garden, with a beautiful shed that inspired my own dissertation and notion of microecologies and abundance

I spent AGES staring at Monet's lily pad rooms. No image or video could capture the feeling of being able to witness the genius of his work, which influenced my early artistic career

Did a workshop in South London with LION and was shown around their radical garden and was happy to find out that Monks Cress are edible and kind of mustard-y

I hate Picasso but damn I can't hate this beautiful composition. Fruit and flowers make sense together

Happy to see magnolias in London too, since they were everywhere in Vancouver. Hot take, but I think they're more alluring before they bloom.

discovered what a Great Masterwort is and if there's any proof of fairies meddling around us, these flowers must be the proof

An upside down iris looks like a strange inhabitation or spaceship, which I later sketched out in 2 of my sketchbooks

When I can't buy everything at the florist, I at least capture them through my camera. I can't help myself...

I live near a beautiful garden which I sometimes stroll through for inspiration (or when I acquire another plant baby) and I as enamored by the orchids they had over the spring!