Poppies!

Spring 2004
Garden of Paradise, Shiraz, Iran

It was glorious listening to my Persian music and painting each poppy. It is the beauty of the atmosphere that is sublime and intoxicating. Truly it is The Garden of Paradise! When I completed this work, the gardeners from the Garden of Paradise (part of Shiraz University) presented me with a bottle of the poppy seeds to take home with me.
A gardener there asked me why I painted Poppies; weren’t there more interesting subjects in the garden that I didn’t have in my country to paint? I told him, “I am not painting Poppies! I am painting the atmosphere that the Poppies imbibe here!”

Poppies' voice tells of the joy in every living thing. It is about the divine in all creatures, the male and female and the joy in all life and regeneration.