Grandmother Hart's Lilacs

2025

There is something about lilacs that belongs entirely to memory — the way their scent arrives before you see them, the way a single branch can pull you straight back to a childhood yard, a grandmother's garden, a Colorado spring that felt like it would last forever. Laurie S. Waalkes knows this. She painted these lilacs the way memory actually works: in layers, in fragments, with old music humming quietly underneath and bold color washing over everything like feeling itself. The background tells its own story before the flowers even begin. Sheet music ghosts through the golden yellow on the left — notes that were once someone's Sunday afternoon, someone's recital, someone's love song. On the right, hot pink and orange sweep across in broad, gestural strokes, alive with the warmth of a Colorado afternoon. And then the lilacs arrive — painted with the patient, loving attention of someone who has always noticed the plants others walk past. Each floret is its own small world. Each leaf holds light differently. This is Laurie's gift: she takes the humble and the overlooked and places them somewhere they cannot be ignored. These lilacs have always been beautiful. She simply made sure you'd finally stop and see them.