Confrontational and irrefutable forms and images comprise my latest series, Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil). Modern science has enabled us to view life at the cellular level. My research first attracted me to the magnificent color and form of cellular representations of various maladies. Some of the images reminded me of surrealistic flowers, the moon, or even the sun and its rays. I often wondered how something so beautiful, so seemingly benign could be so insufferable and fatal to man.
I then linked the two obscure yet intriguing subjects, life at the cellular level and French 19th century poetry. Though it’s difficult to imagine any correlation between the two, there is a tragic beauty inherent in both. This lethal beauty found in cancer cells and HIV cells strongly connect to the poems of Charles Baudelaire whose Flowers of Evil collection takes a stark look at corruption. While Baudelaire sees the corruption of the soul, the modern microscope shows the corruption of the body. Upon closer examination, I found that certain poems and particular images had mirrored or paralleled each other. This led to the creation of my series that attempts to reconcile the delicate yet brutal qualities of disease.
After completing several pieces, many have been struck by the depth and complexity of the compositions and suggested that such works would greatly benefit a medical facility. I believe this particular series is thematically appropriate for places of healing – because healing is the intention behind my work. I believe that art has the power to heal and refine the human soul. Acceptance and finding the beauty in the illness itself can be apart of the healing process.
