Arranging a mass of sunflowers that I cut down to plant fall spinach, I think how I can’t but evoke Van Gogh, that “painter of sunflowers.” And reflecting on all the filters we inevitably bring to what ever we witness, I think of a passage by David George Haskell
“Like all people, I am culture bound, so I only partly see the flower, the rest of my field of vision is occupied by centuries of human words. “
The Forest Unseen
But to SEE ; that is the task of the artist “ with eyes unfettered” and so I try to set aside my labeling mind and grab the only tool I’ve ever learned the proper use of : my sketchbook