The idea was to make a substantial masculine head from flowers, something with weight achieved with something more or less weightless. Again working in opposites, subverting the usual attributes and expectations of flowers. I had never seen flowers used pictorially to describe anything other then the feminine.

Finding the rose which is the man’s eye was a real ‘eureka’ moment. It has such psychological character to it, such intelligence, even a hint of mild distain. I looked at thousands of pictures of roses and this is the only one unaltered to make such a perfect human eye. I have since looked at thousands more, and still not found another. Its’ origin, a mundane catalog. Its’ duality, unintended and unrecognized.

The resulting head wryly sniffs the air with the mild distain one might imagine a rose affecting among blooms of a less aristocratic bearing. On occasion a viewer will ask me if the picture depicts Abraham Lincoln, the all time unpretty face. This always pleases me, although it is not the case.

-Stephen Parlato

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