“Snow Queen” Coelogyne Cristata

inE.O. Wilson; The Earths Shepherd and the importance of plants

“Snow Queen”, Coelogyne Cristata

“Snow Queen (Coelogyne Cristata)”, 24”x30”, oil on canvas with water slide decals. The folk tale is attached the the image framing the inner boarder. The image has a zoom in and out of the plant.

This orchid was in bloom when I first started my residency at the university of Minnesota in January . The story behind this plant is that the first settlers near Darjeeling, in the Indian Himalayas, named a town after this beautiful orchid. The Town was named Kurseong, literally meaning “land of the white orchids”. This epiphyte blooms each spring before the snow melts. It likes the cool moist area of the Himalayas and Viet Nam.

This image is part of a piece created as an artist resident for the University of Minnesota. It focuses of their rare plant collection and E.O. Wilson, Professor Emeritus and Curator in Entomology Harvard. ‘

Additional Information

Moments of the day became my friend, fast yet changing, yielding to the temporal, delicate light in my rooms, I started to ponder and “ruminate”. A frozen world of my own personal feelings evolved and pooled within, contemplating the world, politics, trends etc. Hunger for life, color, freedom, tribal connection, love, growth, positivity, abundance and happiness swirled in my thoughts.

The paintings in this show represent how I spent my time during the pandemic.

Focus was undeniably easy. Everything seemed to have an undisturbed awkward presence in my holed up world. I started to feel grateful and thankful for the smaller things that were givens, like the sunlight and the everyday things that surround me. The kitchen, the light dancing over my counter of daily sundry chach, kept me innately focused on its new beauty. It somehow seemed very satisfying, somewhat beautiful, and a definite path away from the daily scourge of the current politics and sickness.

Light heals.

Materials and Medium

Oil on Canvas