The art I create is often affected by my life’s experiences, how I was treated as a gay child growing up in a hostile world. Anyone who is born different from the majority will understand. I often felt unaccepted, disconnected, and unloved. When I began my painting of a water lily, at first it was nothing more than a scene from nature. Then, my mind began to look at it in a new light. Here is a flower different from what I am used to, floating above the water in a bed of blue, instead of being firmly planted in dark garden soil. I began to wonder what would it be like if this flower could communicate? What would it want to say? That is how this poem came to be.
"Pink"
I am a water lily
I am different from the rest
Pink
Don't you see
Rising above the blue and the green
Standing alone for the world to see
Calling out
Look at me
See how different I am
Pink is what I was meant to be
I am a water lily
Can you love me?
Ron Richard Baviello
Detail 1
Detail 2
Detail 3
