Daffodils are spring flowers which I see as representing hope and freshness. To me, daffodils also represent the idea of being able to start again. They appear to die after flowering in the spring, but in fact the bulbs are still there underground, still alive, and the daffodil will flower year after year.

The idea behind this painting was to reflect on how certain things can happen in a person’s lifetime that may result in their losing part of who they are; that their inner-self has to go into a form of hibernation in order to protect itself. However, as with a daffodil, with willpower and support from those around them, the bad times can be passed through and the inner-self can regenerate.

The withered flower on the right of the painting represents the self when it feels like things are too hard to cope with. However, by protecting it from further insults, the withered part can regenerate and return stronger than before. The red ring around the withered flower reinstates the fact that the withering is in the past; it shouldn’t happen again, but remains as a reminder of what has happened, something to draw on when faced with further insults in the future. The daffodil head isn’t enclosed as I wanted it to be free to continue growing.

This painting is personal to me, with the inspiration for it coming from events that happened in my life. I found painting this helped me to put these events into a certain order, and to make a bit more sense of what happened.