FLOWERS  

Painting an Infinity of Colors

 

The universe began as a black void, exploding in a brilliant flash of light containing every atom, molecule, cell and color that ever was in our thirteen-billion-year history and ever will be, far into our future.

These infinite workings of our universe are in a constant state of flux. Before the evolution of the human life form, the evolutionary flow on Planet Earth changed and evolved through its own causes and effects without regard to anything but its process to change, evolve, and mutate as it will, always moving forward, creating the earth's delicately balanced environment over millions of years.

Against the evolving, unstoppable forces of nature molding the earth, countless generations of Early Man survived through the power of their five senses, in harmony and balance with the natural world, taking from it only their basic needs to survive. As primitive hunter gatherers they moved over the earth in harmony with the natural world and the laws of nature, living in the natural light of day; refreshed in the blackness of night, to be born again in the colors of the morning sun.

In the relatively short history of man on earth, his presence has rapidly impacted the earth's evolutionary path in destructive and unnatural ways, witnessing extraordinary mutations over accelerating periods of time. As we call all to witness before our eyes, nature's equilibrium is being destroyed by our arrogant behavior, and the Earth's very existence is in jeopardy.

As humankind evolved from the wandering hunter-gatherer, the beginnings of civilization made life more rooted, more predictable, and primitive man learned to change their natural world and control it for its own benefit. With humans no longer needing to move in harmony across the earth for their continued survival, the concept of happiness evolved from its simplistic beginnings of having a surplus of food and shelter that Humankind began to acquire unnecessary things for no practical reason except to acquire more for the sake of more, creating the concept of both wealth and as a consequence greed, where enough is never enough.

Humankind will be forced to live in an ever-narrowing slice of habitable environment, drowning in too much information. All life forms will struggle to adapt, many will become extinct, only those that have repeatedly mutated themselves into diverse variations of unrecognizable monsters will survive in this increasingly marginalized world.

As we become more desensitized to the benefits of the natural world, we self-isolate into our own self- made, unnatural world, force fed by endless streams of soulless, colorless data.

More than ever, it is vital for us to revive our five senses and re-emerge from the darkness of the unnatural world into a world of creating beauty as a cornerstone of our everyday lives. We should treat all living beings with understanding and respect; looking at the world through a simple color with good spirit, to then see ourselves.

Just as a simple color is imbued with infinite hues, so there are infinite truths that emerge from something as simple as a flower being born into the natural world... you just must look deep enough.

These paintings are probing that question of the imminent danger confronting all life forms.

                                                                                                                  Tadamasa Yokoyama