In regard to haiku, a kind of meditation through words, to observe a flower has a universal appeal, that predates language, that speaks through a visual substrate for language. The following are my watercolor sketches of flowers illustrating the FLOWERS: WORDS, INK & PAINT presentation honoring International Haiku Day 2024.

In traditional haiku there is always some reference to a season, and here where I currently live, I was fortunate enough to go outside and draw the iris, pea, plum, and buttercups on site. And in regard to the experience of sketching the plum blossoms, it was very educational in that while drawing, people would come up to me and explain how to differentiate the type of tree, whether it be plum, cherry, or peach, through sepal color, petal detail, and blossom configuration. So, for example, with the plum, the sepals are a deep red brick color whereas the cherry blossoms have green sepals and are more bunched together.