Curtains c. 1937

Lillian Causey rendered these curtains with watercolor and graphite, capturing floral motifs within a defined structure. The stylized red and pink flowers, interspersed with blue foliage, speak to a deep human desire to bring the beauty of nature indoors. Consider the symbolic weight of flowers across cultures: emblems of love, life, death, and renewal, blooming in ancient frescoes and modern textiles. In the ancient world, floral patterns were not merely decorative, but potent symbols of fertility and prosperity. The act of enclosing these symbols within the home, rendered here, reflects the human drive to control and cultivate nature's abundance. The floral arrangement evokes a sense of idealized domesticity, yet beneath this lies a tension between artifice and nature, containment and freedom. This interplay is a subtle dance, engaging our subconscious associations with growth, decay, and the eternal cycle of life.