So as not to break the commitment that I made to myself when starting this project with crocus in early March, I saw it through to goldenrod in early September, collecting a single petal from every flowering perennial and naturally occurring annual that I found. I forbid myself from trespassing, but neighbors beware, if it was within reach of your sidewalk, I plucked it. Some petals were collected during adventures in wilderness and stuffed into pants pockets, becoming wilted by the time I photographed them on black construction paper taped to the inside of a journal. Some petals were either too tiny to separate or too unique to the flower’s structure to stand alone. Where color variation existed within the same species, like tulips, I collected them all, because my goal was always a color wheel, a circle, found in the pigment of nature. The puzzle-like assembly took all winter,
a pandemic project.
