This series was initially inspired by Russia’s  invasion of Ukraine, specifically the 2022 Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station.

The news from Ukraine was full of wanton Russian human rights violations (think Bucha), but also ineptitude, not only in military matters but also in the management of the heavily damaged Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.  In Russian hands it could be headed for a meltdown. After all, Russian soldiers were digging trenches near the site of the1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, exposing themselves to dangerously high levels of radiation. These are the people in charge.

The Fallout Flowers represent the aftermath of the worst-case scenarios - a nuclear meltdown or war.  They are surrounded by death, mutilated and mutated, but resilient. Some glow with their own radioactive light, having transformed deadly unstable atomic nuclei into life and beauty. Other flowers simply dominate a fiery landscape with energetic chunks of debris orbiting through the sky above.

 The Fallout Flowers are unconquered resilient souls. Survivors who remind us that  war can destroy flesh and bone but not spirit.