Seed of Renewal 
Blossom, Spring 
New Milkweed Pods 
Sunset, Fall 
Winter 
Monarch and Flower, August
Milkweed Cycle – Artist Statement
This Milkweed Sequence features six images depicting the transformative seasonal cycle of the milkweed plant: from blossom to pod, to breaking open of pod, to seed dispersal in the fall, and includes the gorgeous ornamental role the milkweed plays in a winter storm-weathered meadow, as well as the monarch butterfly, which depends on the milkweed plant as its sole source of food.
These milkweed images are inspired by my daily walks in nature, in every weather, from wherever I travel, but mostly from home, which is in the woods, meadows and wetlands around the Charles River in the suburbs of Boston. My images are never staged. I photograph what I find as I find it. These plants and other natural occurrences of my habitat serve as “maps of consciousness” for me. An image seems to pull my interest toward it, as I’m walking in a trance-like state, an idea inspired by Thoreau, who said in his writing about walking: “I must walk more with my free senses…”
A wonderful part of the experience of these photos for me is in the making: the sensory, bodily encounter I have with plants, the way the nature is imprinted on my knees as I bend down to get close to the earth from which these organic images have sprung. Each image is an emotional experience, and works similarly as a poem does. I take a picture because I am awakened by an unconscious call to notice something in my daily habitat and let it be expressed through me; I feel something in the here and now. My images want to communicate into the breath and throb of a moment of enlightenment: an integration from unconscious knowing. The cycle of milkweed is a cycle of renewal that rewards the monarch and all of us on earth.
Kelly DuMar is a poet, playwright and workshop facilitator from Boston. She’s author of three poetry chapbooks, girl in tree bark (Nixes Mate, 2019), Tree of the Apple’ (Two of Cups Press), and All These Cures (Lit House Press). Her poems, prose and photos are published in many literary journals including Bellevue Literary Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Crab Fat, Storm Cellar, Corium & Tiferet. Kelly serves on the Board of the International Women’s Writing Guild (IWWG). She blogs her daily nature photos & creative writing at kellydumar.com/blog