'The Garden Heart'

A garden is one of the few places in the world where individuality and community exist without contradiction. The sunflower reaches upward. The thyme stays low. The bee balm refuses to behave. The yarrow quietly holds everything together. No one competes. No one asks another to become something different. Each contributes exactly what only it can. And together, a garden becomes more beautiful than any single flower could ever achieve alone.

This piece carries that lesson.

At first glance, it appears to be a heart. Look closer. It is actually a gathering. Hundreds of petals. Fragments of stems. Seeds. Leaves. Blooms. Remnants of entire seasons woven together into a single form. No individual flower dominates. No single voice leads.

The beauty emerges because everything belongs. COMMUNITY!

The flowers wanted to remind us that hearts are built the same way. We become ourselves through countless encounters: a conversation, a friendship, a loss, a kindness, a teacher, a stranger, a season we survived, a season we celebrated.

Every experience leaves something behind. Layer by layer. Petal by petal.

Until eventually we discover that what we call a heart is actually a community of memories living together in one place.

This piece is a celebration of that truth. Nothing here stands alone. And neither do we.