NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

Statement

These Platinum Palladium prints finished with gold leaf, were part of the ‘Timeless/Alternative Printing Processes’ exhibition at Photoworks, GlenechoMD and ‘The alternative processes competition’ at SOHO Gallery, New York.

~ inspired by Robert Frost’s poem~

Nature first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only for an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to play.

Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost refers to the metaphor that something new and pure is rare and valuable. That rare and valuable purity is personified as always leaving. Each line helps to communicate the theme of the poem: the transitory nature of life. For example, "Nature's green is gold" means that the first green buds that appear on the trees are like the "golden times" of being young and innocent, as a child. This time gives way to the flower of summer, which then gives way to the bright green leaves of late summer, to the decaying leaves of fall and eventually the death of the leaf. This is part of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

In this body of work I ask the question, how can one find comfort in the impermanence of things. Is this life on Earth more meaningful because it’s definite and should we be more immersed in the present moment, knowing nothing is permanent here?