Lilacs Last Bloom'd, 44"W x 60"D x 1 1/2". Available. Based on Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd". An elegy written after the death of Abraham Lincoln. ⠀

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Note the words; lilacs last bloomed, western fallen star, through old woods, O death, O's. ⠀

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In the painting you can see Lincoln's hat in the upper right corner. A white tree symbolizing the stature of the President, the woods where his train passed through and also how not only men and women saluted the passing but nature itself. Lilac's in the center represent in both the poem and the painting how Whitman is deeply affected by its perfume, and believes that every heart shaped leaf is a miracle. The purple color of the lilac, indicating the passion of the Crucifixion, is highly suggestive of the violence of Lincoln's death. The timing of Lincoln's death was near to Easter ( this time of the year ). The many O's represent the second stanza of the poem in which the words of the poet mourn ( the shape of a mouth open in woe ) the Western Fallen Star ( also represented in the painting's upper left corner). In the lower left we see the "black Murk" in the "tearful night" with tears represented by drips throughout the painting. ⠀

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How shall we sing for the large sweet soul that has gone ? How shall we compose the tribute for the dead one there I loved ?⠀

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This was painted after the Parkland, FL shooting incident at a school. It seemed a fitting time for this painting. We mourn with you of those you have lost. I am proud of the young voices struggling through tragedy for change, for a better tomorrow. .