Theresa Tarara
Spent Lily
Image Created: 2021
Medium: Gum Dichromate over Cyanotype
Edition: Unique
Framed: $350
Frame: 19″ x 15″
From the artist
My neighbor’s calla lilies greeted me on my walk displaying their green leaves most of the year until white flowers appeared in Spring, then I stopped to take way too many photos of the young creamy white petals and the shadows and lines of the spent blooms reminded me that life was passing before my eyes. The photos I took that year were different – I lived through a pandemic. Going back like a bee to honey, I watched the forms change. I made this gum bichromate print in stages with light sensitive chemistry, watercolor pigment and sun light. The compilation of energy of birth to death harkened to me about my own life. I worked and thought a lot, I cannot give up. I spent days on the image to get the exposure right, asking myself why I chose a difficult process to make art prints. A practice of doing yielded more than what I had hoped for, a generation of a flower and I had become reflections of each other. Resilient upon paper for a long time.