Fading in and out of Glory

I formed a pandemic partnership with my backyard hydrangeas while stuck at home. I marked full-size sheets of paper with my fluctuating emotions of fear, anxiety, loneliness, boredom and hope using graphite and mixed media to record a full year life cycle of my hydrangeas.

Fading in and out of Glory

In the spring and summer, the large, hope-filled, voluptuous snowball blooms transform from one moody colour to another against their rich green leafy foliage. They fade in the fall to shadowy silhouettes of their former glory, and in the winter, the golden blooms struggle to remain upright under the weight of heavy white snow while their leaves shrivel and wither in the cold.

I found it cathartic to watch the seasonal progression of these hydrangeas. Some days it was hot and sunny, others so windy I had to put a weight on my paper to keep it from blowing away. Once the snow came, I retreated to my studio, observing through my large windows.

Drawing these hydrangeas brought me creative focus as I engaged in a survival ritual, marking my paper with the gesture of experience and the fluctuation of my state of mind from joyous to melancholy and despair to hope.