ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
Spring comes, and the grass grows
By itself.
       Zenrin poem

The life of the universe is complete at every moment and does not need to justify itself by pointing to some higher purpose.

If you don't believe, just look
at September, look at October!
The yellow leaves falling, to fill
both mountain and river.
        Zenrin poem

Man when living is soft and tender; when dead, he is hard and tough. All animals and plants are tender and fragile; when dead, they become withered and dried.
        From  Nature, Man and Woman by Alan W. Watts

Even if life has infinite choices, one must choose, "This over That," until death comes. Truly, life is a journey.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
...

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
         From "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
 

Western science attempts to make nature intelligible by categorizing it into containers of similarity, such as plant and animal, genus and species. This gives nature an orderliness that is illusory. In truth, nature is mindless and does not have the purposes we ascribe to it.

The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflection.
The water has no mind to receive their image.
         Zenrin poem

In these images, the plants serve as objects of contemplation on the mystery and unknowability of the world. The titles and the information for each image give a starting point, from my personal point of view, but leave the possibility for the viewer to extend each alone or, preferably, as a series. Embracing the LightNeon Night (Batteries not Included)Life Is SufferingThe Middle WayWalk On!Come on InLook, But Don't TouchSend in the ClownsBloodied But UnbowedForbidden FruitLight in the Heart of DarknessMaelstrom of the MindKaleidoscopic SpaceFrankly Scarlett, I Don't Give a DamnRed Badge of CourageReign of TerrorI Wear Pink for the LonelyThe Tender Things They SayThey Often Marry TooDeep in the ForestFirst LightGarden of SecretsSplit MindBlood Red TearsMy Life in ColorEach Unhappy in Its Own WayKindly, Forgiving PainIn Flanders FieldsSecret of the Golden FlowerDressed in White ForeverMidsummer SnowTurning the Light AroundGone  to Seed