"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning." — J.B. Priestley
When Silence Blooms, Pacific Grove, CA, 2011
I discovered these Angel Trumpets on an ordinary Tuesday morning, the kind where coffee tastes exactly right and the light falls through leaves with deliberate grace. I had walked past this corner of the garden countless times, but today something made me pause. Perhaps it was the way the morning mist transformed their drooping blooms into something between sculpture and song.
Standing there with my camera, I realized I was witnessing a quiet revolution. These flowers, with their bell-shaped heads bowed earthward, weren't mourning or hiding. They were listening. To the whispered conversations between dewdrops. To the gentle percussion of a hummingbird's wings, three gardens over. To the symphony of suburban morning that most of us rush past without hearing.
The soft focus happened almost by accident, a gentle shift of my lens that suddenly revealed what I'd been looking for without knowing it. In that dreamy blur, the trumpets became something more than botanical subjects. They became meditation bells, prayer wheels, tiny temples celebrating the sacred ordinary.
I've spent years searching for poetry in the banal, turning my camera toward the overlooked corners where beauty hides in plain sight. But this morning, the poetry found me. It whispered that elegance doesn't always announce itself with fanfare. Sometimes it hangs quietly in our peripheral vision, waiting for us to slow down enough to notice.
The photograph captures more than flowers. It holds that moment of recognition when the everyday world reveals its secret magic. The flowers are no longer there, but I still remember not just what I saw, but how it felt to suddenly understand that every corner of our world is quietly blooming with stories, if we just learn to listen to their silence.
These Angel Trumpets taught me that the most profound songs aren't always the loudest ones. Sometimes they're the gentle hums that fill the spaces between our busy thoughts, the soft melodies that bloom when we finally stop rushing and start seeing.
Artist Statement
"When Silence Blooms" emerges from my ongoing investigation into the liminal spaces where the ordinary world reveals its hidden poetry. This piece transforms the humble Angel Trumpet from a mere botanical subject into a meditation on presence and mindful observation.
Shot during one of those perfect Tuesday mornings when light and timing align, the image captures these drooping blooms not as dormant flowers but as active listeners, vessels attuned to the subtle symphonies of suburban morning life. The monochromatic treatment and soft focus create a dreamlike quality that invites viewers to slow down and discover their own moments of quiet revelation.
In my work, I seek to challenge our rushed relationship with the everyday, using the camera as a tool for excavating the extraordinary poetry buried within ordinary scenes. "When Silence Blooms" invites viewers to consider what we might discover if we learned to pause with the same attention these flowers give to their morning meditation and what might bloom in our own lives when we finally stop hurrying past beauty.
Exhibition Information
"Embracing the Light"
Pacific Grove Art Center
568 Lighthouse Avenue, Pacific Grove, CA 93950.
September 5 - October 30, 2025
Opening Reception: Friday, September 5, 6-8 PM
Curator Talk: Saturday, September 6, 1-2 PM
With Corey Madden, Executive Director, Monterey Museum of Art
All artists in this exhibition are members of the Image Makers of Monterey, a local group of photographers brought together for the past 26 years by their love and passion for photography. The goal of the ImageMakers is to ensure that photography, as a vital art form, will continue and thrive on the Monterey Peninsula.
The Pacific Grove Art Center is a community-based nonprofit organization established in 1969, dedicated to cultivating the arts in the Monterey Peninsula area by providing creative experiences that inspire, engage, challenge minds, and enrich lives It serves as a vibrant hub for artists and art enthusiasts, offering a wide range of programs including art classes for children, teens, and adults, lectures, forums, exhibits, music concerts, poetry readings, and special events. The center is located at 568 Lighthouse Avenue, Pacific Grove, CA 93950.