A nod to abstraction

The buds of one of Austin’s most common wildflowers, greenthread (Thelesperma filifolium), tend to nod, just as many of my portraits give a nod—or more than that—to abstraction. Each nutant greenthread bud stalk eventually straightens up as it opens into a flower head. The purple in the top photograph’s background came from prairie verbena flowers (Glandularia bipinnatifida). The second picture shows a mostly upright bud opening at a time when the flower head it had bumped up against was already fading. Both portraits are from Great Hills Park on May 15th.

 

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Here’s another cautionary tale from the moral panic of 2020, when facts and statistics not only didn’t matter but wouldn’t be tolerated in the hysterical throes of race-essentialist religion.

 

© 2022 Steven Schwartzman