Flower Yani

Yani was not just a model for this work, but a creative contributor greater than the passive connotations of “model” would convey. She rode with me through the countryside for hours testing out potential locations for this portrait, and it was she that noticed a meadow completely isolated in the woods. Her eye was caught by the yellow sunflowers. Yani then sat down in the meadow and picked the pose. 

My approach was inspired by two artists who were active in the twentieth century. Otto Mueller, a German expressionist, and the Finnish modernist Askeli Gallen-Kallela. Here, the settings and subjects of Mueller are combined with the color palette of Gallen-Kallela. Looking at their art, I was encouraged to maintain a loose quality to this work, to not spoil energetic marks with overthinking. 

Mueller depicts an idealized world in his paintings where humans were one with nature, where troubles were nonexistent. I took Mueller’s themes and tweaked them a bit: Yani wears glasses, something not perfect within nature, and unlike Mueller’s subjects, she looks directly at us. I wanted to capture a playfulness that fits in with that of my other paintings, as if both the Yani and the audience are sharing a joke.