Connect What is your favorite type of art to create?

My favorite art to create is symbolic botanical painting that transforms close observations of flowers and their ecosystems into visual stories. I’m drawn to small moments in nature, studying a flower’s color, posture, habitat, folklore, and medicinal history before painting it. Through a Nouveau-Victorian floriographic style inspired by hanakotoba, I aim to communicate emotion without words and let the quiet narratives of the botanical world speak directly to the viewer.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find my inspiration in the quiet dialogue between the garden and the cosmos. Like Monseigneur Bienvenu in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, I need only two things: a small garden to walk in and immensity to reflect on. Among flowers, insects, and living ecosystems, I observe fleeting moments of beauty and meaning. A few flowers on earth and all the stars in heaven remind me that even the smallest life holds a story worth painting.

What would you do with $25,000?

If awarded $25,000, I would travel to gardens and natural landscapes in Japan, China, and Vietnam, where plant symbolism and folklore are deeply rooted in culture. Immersing myself in these environments would allow me to study new ecosystems, traditional plant knowledge, and the origins of floral languages like hanakotoba. These experiences would inspire a new body of botanical paintings, translating these stories into visual floriography.