A Dutch Still Life

Photo styling and baking are two of my favorite escapes right now and I love getting lost in the moment creating something beautiful (or delicious) with my hands. When these gorgeous flowers arrived they were such a bright spot in an otherwise very gray week of quarantine. What is it about flowers that feel so hopeful? At the same time the dropped petals and fleeting beauty of the blooms also served as a memento mori during this uncertain spring.

Many of you commented that these photos reminded you of a Dutch still life - one of my personal favorite periods in art history. In addition to simply immortalizing their beauty, I'm researching a printer so I can send a beautiful print of the image above to my grandma in California. She's been taking photographs of flowers for years and would send me handmade cards, often with a photograph of one of her garden flowers on the front, every month all throughout college and my early 20s. She'd always include a little what she called "mad money" inside so I could do something fun - those were the days!