Having passed through some of the scariest times of the pandemic and thankfully surviving Covid’s initial surge, I found myself wanting to express what I was feeling. We all lived with the knowledge that “it” remained all around us, yet we still yearned to return to our lives and the former times we freely shared with our family, friends, and colleagues. I was keenly aware that these same thoughts were shared by virtually everyone throughout the world, and I set out to capture that state of hopeful optimism while grounded in the reality that the virus that surrounded us still maintained a grip on our lives. I pulled images from some of the most familiar elements of my body of work – flowers – symbols of hope throughout many, if not all cultures. Even though this disturbing experience was playing out across the globe, I drew upon images of flowers that I had grown, using their beauty to remind us of sweeter times, times when we were able to freely gather with loved ones.