Consider the lily

Reluctant (and too lazy!) to spend too much time out of doors at the moment, I am turning my attention to my immediate surroundings at home. I've had this bunch of lilies on the dresser since Christmas.  They seem to be everlasting and have only just now started to wilt and curl. Here are a few experiments in focus and composition, some shots partly in focus, some so out of focus as to form abstract patterns of shape and colour.  I will revisit them over the next few days to chart their process of decay....

Despite, or perhaps because of their association with death, I love the perfect waxen beauty of the lily. In Western Art the lily is often used as a symbol of purity and chastity and is associated with the Virgin Mary - in paintings of the Annunciation the Angel Gabriel is often depicted as offering a white lily to the Madonna. The lily is traditionally used at funerals as it represents the restored innocence of the soul at death - a symbol of resurrection and rebirth.