Summer Squall Fabric

Peonies, roses and ranunculi play the lead role in ‘Summer Squall’. These full-blooming flowers hover over a middle ground of exploding foliage. Several delicate, reclusive butterflies and beetles inhabit the vegetal shadows. It’s all in motion, a summer garden that’s beginning to stir with the oncoming passing of the season.

Unlike the prints Ellie had designed previously, she had this one named almost from the very start. As I worked on this piece, I almost felt that the peony was drilling into its ground, kicking up stormy winds all around it. It had an unstoppable force to it. Because of things that were going on in my life at the time, it became a symbol for me of the inexorable passing of time.