Description

Generations: Nymphaea odorata 12″ × 9″ | Acrylic on Canvas
Part of Beyond Borders: Refuges in Motion

While birding with my sister at the Schmitz Audubon Nature Center in Bayside, Wisconsin, I photographed this American white water lily growing within the refuge. I was there looking for birds, but as often happens during my field work, something else caught my attention.

The flower is a fleeting presence on the surface. After blooming for only a short time, it sinks beneath the water and continues the reproductive cycle that will eventually produce the next generation.

That cycle became the inspiration for Generations.

The title carries a deeply personal meaning as well. My grandmother was known to our family as Lill, and her love and influence have continued to flow through the generations. The lily became an unexpected connection between my family history and the natural world I was observing.

This painting is part of Beyond Borders: Refuges in Motion, an ongoing body of work exploring migration, habitat, refuge, and the interconnected lives of the species—and people—who move through these landscapes.

In Generations, a brief moment of flowering becomes a meditation on continuity: what disappears from view may not be ending at all. Sometimes it is simply becoming part of what comes next.