Swimming Toward the Source

This altar is titled Swimming Toward the Source. I created it last week for my 50th birthday. It features maple seeds, wisteria pods, catkins from black walnut and other trees, camellia petals, ornamental oregano flowers, acorns, rhododendron flowers, irises, spruce twigs, ranunculus, sunflower petals, and a bunch of purple and blue flowers! Oh yeah and some big green leaves that grow on a vine on the side of my house. 

It was inspired by a video my friend Tesa sent me about zen-doodling. I decided to give it a try, but rather than using pens and paper to do it with natural materials! As you can see I created this indoors. I used a giant pizza pan and laid all the dried parts in the evening. The next day, on my birthday, I added in all the fresh flowers. Mostly from my yard, but also from a bouquet gifted to me by Deb! (Thank you Deb!)

My partner gave it the title, as he saw all those maple seeds and yellow petals looking like they were swimming toward the center of the design.  ​