Potpourri Series by Burns
I enjoy depicting sex, sexuality. The human form is beautiful; more than one human form is more beautiful. In the paintings I've done so far for this project, flowers frame the partners and I've used that to drive the mood. The backgrounds are simple, the colors dark so as not to distract attention from the bodies. The flowers are not real; they represent the unreality and transcendence that lovers experience together. The real world vanishes and is replaced by feelings that are like potpourri. And this series, which I continue to develop, is called Potpourri.
It is inspired by Morning Reassurance, which I wrote several years ago. I've resurrected it from my past and let it guide me through this project. More from this series coming soon.
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Morning Reassurance
The morning teases until my eyes cannot close without the guilty notion that I am trying too hard to stay asleep. The sun, raised from its slumber, stays busy at my feet, peeking through the window, penetrating the secretive dimness of the room. The night air eases slowly in the relentlessly hovering gleam that seeps in between the windowsill and curtain, which hangs a couple of inches too short to cover the full window.
Beyond the window, cacti and yucca trees bloom violently fresh colors as if daring the sun to bleach their mirth. Strange weeds - also florid, owning a beauty wild are to me the epithet of my virgin nature. Like giggling children they bob and sway in the wind, allowing carelessness to strip their petals so that their nugatory façade falls and drifts away. The desert divulges to me its sacred secrets, just as I, to him. He breathes a little heavier and stretches, looking at me, touching my side. I feel comforted, yet crazed all at once.
The wind desperately pushes open the gasping window and the petals fall purposefully beyond my grasp. The fallen petals ferment and develop, swelling with the antique aroma of potpourri; filling my head with memories and dreams. There is nothing I have lost. My purest senses return and replenish my once agnostic soul. My roots are not, as I thought they might become, entangled in the strangling nourishment of another's security; I feel enriched, seeking within the darkest crevices of my Self. Compromise spirits, no - we fuse and spark and discover untouched sacraments that souls forget so easily when alone. I feel, I am the morning.
-Stevie Burns