As I finished some batiks in need of the dyeing stage, I pondered about bleeding hearts as the welcomers of spring. And about how they are both the flower and the tragic soul who finds themselves enveloped in the agony of others. Bleeding hearts are one of the first flowers to emerge in the Northwest woods; they poke their heads up in early spring just when the air is warm enough. There are pink ones and white ones and barely a smell, but they are a color pink so sweet your mouth barely waters if you look into it deeply enough.
Bleeding Hearts
This is my photo inspiration, a picture taken in the spring 2005 in Coos Bay, Oregon.
And when I rendered it in batik, I find myself somewhat enveloped in another world; a softer, more fluid world. Where are the edges of your pink soul? How sweet are those hearts that bleed from you, how new are you...here to give the welcome. 'Welcome spring', the bleeding hearts say, 'and welcome too, to the new fish planted last winter in the river gravels. Welcome splash and song of spring each finds all around! We are here to remind you that winter is over, and newness has begun.'