While visiting Boston to learn about non-toxic soy based AKUA INKS with Catherine Kernan at Mixit Print Studios, and continuing my path for a new voice in my art, I was haunted by this little book ~

“The Secret Language of Flowers” by Jean-Michel Othoniel

It’s a good story… rewind.

Back in San Antonio, Texas at my art opening “Talismans and Visionary Allergories” at Anarte Gallery, a week before my trip to Boston, I was given a page from this book, The Tulip Flower, A Declaration of Love, as I was on my way to Boston and needed inspiration for the class project, and had considered the Tulip as my subject. It was magical.

I carried that page around for the entire week. It inspired me to created two new woodblocks of The Tulip for this workshop and I produced a number of nice prints, all the while learning about new inks and techniques.

It was so inspiring… (but that’s another story)

Giving me that page was no small gesture and the introduction to this sweet book became the theme of my trip to New England. I was taken by the beautiful array of flowers throughout New England, flaunting their amazing colors and shapes, they inspired once again my love for the natural beauty on this earth.

While in Boston, I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Going, I thought to see an amazing collection of art, which I did (but that too, is another story) …

What struck me most were the gardens there, the atrium full of some of the most exotic and beautiful combination of trees, bushes, and flowers. The visual stimulation, the fragrances and colors, were intoxicating enough that I sat spellbound.

I sat for a long time in the Atrium, ideas and inspirations flowing abundantly to me. I couldn’t stop photographing,

And then, as I was taking it all in, there, laying next to me on a stone bench as if it had been abandoned, was THE little book,