8.25" x 12" watercolor
I was drawn to do this still life to express an idea from a well-known story in Chinese culture: A poet/calligrapher (a facet of my ancient Chinese hermit-scholar fantasy) was at his writing desk one day, working, a vase of flowers on the desk. Noticing petals falling from the senescing flowers, he was overcome with a clear sense of the ephemeral nature of existence. This was so dramatic that it changed his life. Something so simple can be the greatest teacher.
This piece was started March 28, 2016, about 30 minutes before a surprise, life-altering event for a friend of mine I went to see that night. The event is my friend's story to tell. The coincidence of the timing of that event and this painting is significant to me because I was thinking strongly of this friend when I started the sketch.
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