Nostalgic Paper Whites

by Carla Parris

Title

Nostalgic Paper Whites

Artist

Carla Parris

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

NOSTALGIC PAPER WHITES is a textured digital photograph by Carla Parris.

Paper whites are a sweet, early-blooming spring flower. They have a strong fragrance, somewhat like that of a gardenia, but maybe even more pungent. They are an old-fashioned flower which, for me, evoke nostalgic feelings.

This bloom came from a plant which was originally in the yard of my father's childhood rural home in Greensboro, Florida. It was moved to the yard of an earlier home of mine in Tallahassee, survived two years when that home was rented out, and was eventually relocated to the garden of my present home. They are obviously hardy bulbs! It is now on the side of my driveway and when it is blooming, which normally occurs when everything else is still showing winter browns, it provides a tiny cheery welcome each time I arrive back home.

This image is even more nostalgic for me because the stem of flowers is draped over the back of a rocking chair which also has family and personal history. It belonged to my mother's aunt who raised my maternal grandfather for most of his life. She was single most of the time I knew her until, while in her seventies, she married the lawyer for whom she had worked for many years in Atlanta, after his wife died. They retired to his farmhouse in Baconton, Georgia where we visited her several times after his death. This rocker was one of a row of rockers which sat on her screened in front porch. I have fond memories of time spent there, especially on summer evenings where this suburban-raised girl first saw fireflies and got a taste of farm life in the South.

This rocker is one of several cherished pieces of furniture which I inherited from her. It helped furnish my first home, which I bought as a young woman. It was painted aqua when I first acquired it, but got refinished down to more neutral tones when I loaned it to a former roommate for rocking her first baby. It eventually made its way back to me, and for a time had its home in my kitchen (yes, I know that is a rather unusual place for a rocking chair). I am not much of a morning person, and during much of the still-single season I practiced law, with its attendant stresses and pressures and hours and demands, this rocking chair was where I started my day, sipping that welcome first cup of coffee. Because this is a Brumby rocking chair, it has unusually broad flat arms on which a large mug of coffee can easily and ever so handily be balanced.

This rocking chair, with all of its history both before me and with me, now resides on the small outside covered porch area around the front door of the home I very happily share with my husband of eighteen years. Like most everything that isn't nailed down in our home, other than my husband's office furniture and a few surviving dark wood pieces, it has been painted white, adding yet another layer of history in the paint. This, along with the weathering to which it has been subjected from exposure to the elements, and the years, has yielded the kind of patina that only comes with time.

This image, taken just a few days ago in Tallahassee, Florida, with its stem of lovely spring flowers and its unpretentious old weathered wicker rocking chair, is a gentle reminder of earlier times and simple pleasures.

Actions and textures courtesy of Melissa Gallo.

This photograph was published in the April 2014 issue of Eye on Fine Art Photography magazine.

Uploaded

January 30th, 2014

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