Oh wow! What a beautiful image and verse! Fantastic concept and gorgeous work.

Sensational color palette.

Superb creation !!!!

Most excellent creation!!!

Carol, you did an amazing job on this lovely and thoughtful presentation.

Fabulously beautiful. Xx

Fantastic creation and composition.

cool

I love the idea of this series, and it's right up your alley, as you are almost pre-chosen to do such a series. Your 'street cred' in the cosmos is peerless---how's that! I agree that irises are massive beings of mystery, fantasy and endless possibility, as you write. All flowers are, but the iris is one of the small number who wear those qualities on their "sleeve". You've zeroed in and cropped this (so to speak---allow the photographic term, because this is cropped like a photo as much as a painting, to my eye) so that we get only part of the flower, with the opening being the key focus. Yet, the petals around the opening are mighty intense, with active furls and rivers and pulsing vessels (like blood vessels, close up) and lots of folds showing age and experience. (Flowers show experience! They have old wisdom.) And beautiful hues around those central petals---you've got fiery oranges on the bottom and on each side---the right side has tongues of orange flame. You've got saturated deep purples in between the center and right. You've got some deep reds on the left (bottom), etc: Wonderful rich hues surrounding the flower, like a set of rich flames protecting this inner kingdom. And your peripheral forms cross the line between 'actual' flower and flower-like energies, which you do with complete ease. (But then, you make those crossovers a lot in your art, and they're always organic.) As for the center, it's quite complex; and you have whites pulsing on the right petals, like liquid marble. (I've used liquid marble in some of my writing, pillars moving like liquid, an image I resonate with totally.) But then the opening---first it's washed over with a translucent veil, moving down in light diagonal lines, like light shields that protect the holy inner place. I love the sense that these light-waves reflect light back at us. I wonder if you used the chakric colors in them. And then we see an actual scene, something from a fairy tale maybe, or certainly a folkloric world. There's water, gentle ground, a cottage with those high germanic roofs, chimneys, trees, etc. All washed over by the light in front---I can't help thinking of a light shield that protects the inside but which is wholly permeable to those who are ready to pass through. And the scene is cut off by the protective petals, so we know there's a much larger world back there of which we see only a small portion. It's a deep hint, a glimpse---which is what flowers offer, I think, as they contain the universe inside, but inside a small sensual 'container'. Your piece tells me that we are called by flowers to find those inner worlds. This one is a magical fantasy land... It's beautiful. I hope you continue the series---or maybe I should say I hope the series continues to call you. For totally selfish reasons, because it has so much possibility when coming from your inner eye and heart. The orange and glowing purple "flames" at the bottom (I assume at least in part your interpretation of those 'bearded scarves' that flow out of iris centers---I love how you turned them into flame, if that was in your vision)...they add to the sense of this place being protected by a ring of sacred fire. A cloistered crop that makes the center a real revelation. Beautiful work, Carol, and one of those 'departures' I spoke of, where you seem to be opening new vistas in your art that you probably have walked through many times in your soul. A very intense doorway to a magical world; and more flowing beauty from you...

I knew you would understand and celebrate the fantasy life of a flower, because if you could, you would probably live there for a while, absorbing all the magic and mysteries. And you would see new things, and discover new places to explore, because that's what you do. I suspect that the scene inside a flower changes, like the universe changes, and one is constantly surprised and intrigued with the unfolding scene. I fully plan on exploring more flowers and their inner fantasy life, wondering what I will discover, and thank you so much for sharing your insights, and inner-sights with me, Mark.