As a freshman in art school, I was assigned a project where I had to paint a flower. I chose to paint three large carnations, and just like that, painting flowers stole my heart. I fell in love with painting the detailed veins, color-matching the many colors and tones of each petal, and creating smoky and dark backgrounds to bring the flowers to the foreground. After painting my carnations, I decided to research flower meanings and their symbolism throughout art history. I’ve become deeply infatuated with the meaning behind different flowers. I would buy bouquets from my local grocery store and photograph them in a corner of my room where I placed a harsh light to get dramatic lighting and shadows in order to mimic the appearance of Dutch Golden Age floral paintings. For this piece, I didn’t do much research into the flower itself. Instead, I was inspired by the peonies tattooed on my sister’s arm. My sister has a sleeve of tattoos that each relate to family members. Peonies are my grandmother’s favorite flower. Additionally, two peony bushes grow at the beginning of the driveway of our childhood home. Over time, peonies have become a staple of our family. When they are in season, we constantly buy them for each other. There is always a place for them at the center of our kitchen table. Now, this physical painting sits on the fireplace of my mom’s home where she can look at it every day.