Art should be as seductive as nature is. What makes our world so seductive?

These portraits very well may be seductive fantasies mixed with the natural worlds hold on my desire to create and fashion nature in our image, or at least my ideal image of beauty. This beauty seduces me, like the amazing hold that spring produces in urban gardeners couching them out into the chill air to turn by hand the earthly loam and smell its musk mixed with the passionate fragrance of spring flowers. This is the power of nature's seduction.

In an attempt to capture just a small part of that seduction I've played with the mysterious relationship between mankind and our surroundings, to seize the mystery that lurks behind things. By wandering the neighborhoods of Seattle and photographing its flora and fauna I have seen images of beauty lurking in the gardens and urban environment. These "portraits" within nature are my seduction.

It is my opinion that portraiture represents an ideal of beauty. To take that beauty and have it become part of nature fascinates and excites me.

The subject interacts with metaphor to bring to the surface the uniqueness of our surroundings. The paintings bridge the duality of concepts like beauty and nature, life and death. This offers the viewer an opportunity to reflect on the many entendres within each piece. In the case of the flowers they offer a depth of symbolism associated with their image from the Victorian age. The calla lily holds an association to the funeral; the dahlia is a symbol of death, the rose a symbol of passion.

I hope to not only introduce these ideas to the viewers mind but to shift the way the viewer perceives reality.

Eric Montoya