Open Heart
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 60 x 60 cm
Year Painted: 2025
Inspired by the healing power of the Echinacea flower, this piece celebrates the strength that comes from an open heart. The bloom, revealing its vibrant center to the world, symbolizes confidence, balance, and self-trust. Like Echinacea, we flourish when we lead with openness—finding power, protection, and harmony within ourselves.
The process of Painting
"Open Heart”
Padova’s Botanical Garden is one of my greatest inspirations. I sometimes call it my private garden—a place where I go to reconnect with myself, find calm, and allow inspiration to bloom.
This summer, during one of my visits, I came across a corner full of Echinacea flowers. I hadn’t seen them in years, and the moment I did, I was instantly taken back to a time when I was studying the emotional, psychological, and spiritual properties of plants. I was studying herbalism.
I remembered my teacher and healer at the time introducing me to this remarkable flower, saying:
“Echinacea rebuilds your strength from within.
It brings balance and protection.”
Those words stayed with me. But that day, standing there in the garden, I truly saw what they meant.
The flower itself is extraordinary—its petals gracefully arch outward, as if revealing its heart to the world. It doesn’t hide.
It doesn’t shrink. It stands tall, confident, bold and unapologetically open.
I saw myself in those flowers. I’m at a stage in my life where I’m learning to show my heart—to share not only my art but also the healing journey behind each piece. It’s not always a beautiful process—healing rarely is—but it’s transformative.
Like the Echinacea, the more I share my heart, the more I realize that vulnerability is not weakness—it’s strength. The more I open, the more powerful, protected, and balanced I feel.
And that, to me, is the magic of both art and nature—they remind us of what we already are: whole, resilient, and full of light waiting to be shared.
with love,
