Black is Never in Bloom

Black is Never in Bloom evolved from my memory of my brother. This series is a visual exploration of the interplay between landscape and memory. Nature is an integral part of my world; it is where I go to remember. Each image is a meditation on these connections.

The Black Crayon

Spring welcomes summer with an outburst of color. The meadow is thick with orange poppies, scarlet flax, black-eyed Susan, baby blue eyes--and my favorite, the wild cosmos. Every color is in bloom except black. Black is never in bloom. 

When we were kids, my mother threw away all the black crayons from our Crayola boxes. To my mom, happiness had a color, and it wasn’t black.

When I had my children, I learned from my mother that my brother had colored everything a shade of black. He never chose the bright crayons. This had worried her. She believed that getting rid of black would get rid of his darkness. 

It is black when I close my eyes to remember him.