Looking at Flowers
by Susan Lumpkin
Georgia O'Keeffe, the famed painter of flowers, said,
"A flower is relatively small. Everyone has many associations with a flower—the idea of flowers. You put out your hand to touch a flower—lean forward to smell it—maybe touch it with your lips almost without thinking—or give it to someone to please them. Still—in a way—nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small—we haven't time—and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time. If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small. So I said to myself—I'll paint what I see—what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it."
Georgia O'Keeffe's idea worked. According to one critic of her flower paintings, they make people feel as if we humans were butterflies.
Butterflies, we know, have more than a passing interest in flowers. And although they may see colors and patterns in flowers that we don't, those that we do see—that we take time to look closely at—are often spectacular. A close-up of a lowly pansy or of a tiny forget-me-not reveals unexpected tints and motifs, as showy at their diminutive size as a hugely flamboyant amaryllis or a flashy lily.
Whether truly seen, as O'Keeffe tried to make us see, or merely admired in passing from afar, flowers play a profound role in human affairs in many cultures around the world. Flowers are offered to appease the gods, as well as angry lovers. Flowers celebrate birth and marriage, and mourn death. Flowers enliven the humblest of homes, make less formidable monumental public buildings. We decorate our bodies with flowers, either painted versions or the real thing. Floral images abound in literature of all sorts, as they do in the arts. Bright blossoms cover walls, furniture, towels and bed sheets. Women living in harems in 18th-century Turkey reportedly spoke to one another in a secret flower language. Inspired by these reports, an elaborate symbolic flower language became hugely popular in 19th-century France, where it was used to communicate between the sexes, and spread in various forms to England and the United States. Some of this symbolism persists to this day; a man's gift of red roses, for instance, continues to signify passion for the woman he presents them to.
Our appreciation of flowers does not depend on the potential for future sustenance they offer. People don't flock to the Mall to see the spring cherry blossoms because they predict cherry pie in the summer; indeed, no cherries are forthcoming on these ornamental trees. In fact, very few of the flowers we admire grow on food plants. We like flowers just for themselves, and all the more so when we take time to really look.
Return to Pollination.
(ZooGoer 24(4) 1995. Copyright 1995 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved.)
