Sunflowers 1963

Alberico Morena made this lithograph print of Sunflowers in 1965, and right away I’m thinking about the garden and the hand! This isn't just looking at a garden, it’s like an intimate conversation with someone who has cultivated beauty in their own space. The texture in this print, the contrast, it all comes together to create a world of imagination. It must have taken patience to pull the image out from the stone, a dance between the artist's hand and the material. I feel like I’m standing there with Morena in his garden, looking through the gate at the sunflowers. The fence becomes an emotional barrier and the sunflowers, these little suns, are out of reach, untouchable, and the garden becomes a symbol of longing and desire. There is a relationship between printmakers that goes back centuries, each learning from the last! We are all in conversation with one another.