Astrid Dahl “Nature’s Smiles” Exhibition Aug 2020

My new collection is based on the universal language of flowers. We give them to each other after picking them or buying them in a flower shop. They help us say, hello, I love you, I am sorry, lets be joyful, welcome to the neighbourhood, I want to get to know you, and as a final farewell, they grace our coffins.

Flowers are like people with a kaleidoscope of different personalities, shapes and forms. But they always do two things,… they either make us smile or help us in some way, with their presence – cope with life.

Each bloom also has a microcosm of life within or around it. Therefore many other creatures rely on each flower. Then there is the different stages of the bloom. From unfurling its petals to the gradual disembodiment of the petals as it withers and dies,  which gives birth to seeds to perpetuate the species.

So all in all, we live with flowers our whole lives, from the bunches on our dining room tables to the ones growing in our gardens. They are all remarkable and beautiful. There are ones reared in hot-houses and even the simple wild ones in the meadows, always there bridging gaps in our emotional wellbeing, in prayers, smiling with laughter, celebrating our complex lives with sprinkles of happiness.

Astri Dahl 2020