On a whim I bought a bouquet of these strange looking green balls knowing nothing about them.  Several days later when seeds exploded all over my dining room table I realized it was a member of the milkweed family.  Gomphocarpus physocarpus is originally from Africa and now grows in warmer parts of the US.  Its common name is “bishop’s balls.”    The airy depth in Milkweed II is created from multiple photographs combined in a painterly process that honors the Dutch masters who taught us so much about light. The composition and design are reminiscent of botanical illustrations that show the many stages of a plant’s life cycle.

Printed with pigment inks on Hahnemühle Rag Satin paper with a one inch white border.