Artist Statement:
I am drawn to Homer’s painting of Phoebe as a young girl and their younger brother with wildflowers in the foreground. I imagine Phoebe enjoying the childhood pastime of picking wildflowers and stringing them into a wreath.
My flower wreath recognizes my Ukrainian heritage, where young girls wear flower wreaths to celebrate various life events. For my wreath, I chose two native pollinators, a Monarch butterfly and a Golden Northern bumblebee, both experiencing declines in population. Their presence in my garden is both ordinary and wondrous, a reminder of the interdependence of plants, insects and climate. I have set them in a floral buffet of rudbeckia laciniata, rosa rugosa, centaurea and oak leaves. Traditionally, the flowers on a wreath have symbolic meaning. Here, I have chosen a message of resilience with rudbekia/yellow coneflower (a stand-in for Ukrainian sunflower), centaurea/cornflower (compassion, kindness), white rugosa roses (faith, hope, love) and oak leaves (courage, strength).