Some Questions You Might Ask
The poem Some Questions You Might Ask by Mary Oliver became the spark for this series. Her questions about the soul— what it is made of, who has one, and why?— opened a space for me to think beyond the physical body. Oliver blurs the line between human and nonhuman life, suggesting that soulfulness might be found everywhere: in animals, plants, stones, and the quiet movements of the natural world.
I am interested in how our memories, emotions, dreams, and daily rituals accumulate inside us, shaping the inner life that cannot be seen directly. The figures in these paintings inhabit moments of contemplation and connection, where the boundary between the visible world and the unseen inner world softens. What is soulfulness is something shared among all living things?. A flower opening, a seashell warmed by the sun, the shifting colors of a shadow… each carries its own quiet vitality.
Some Questions You Might Ask by Mary Oliver
Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?
Who has it, and who doesn’t?
I keep looking around me.
The face of the moose is as sad
as the face of Jesus.
The swan opens her white wings slowly.
In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.
One question leads to another.
Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg?
Like the eye of a hummingbird?
Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?
Why should I have it, and not the anteater
who loves her children?
Why should I have it, and not the camel?
Come to think of it, what about the maple trees?
What about the blue iris?
What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?
What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?
What about the grass?