2023

“In the spring of 2023, I was lucky enough to travel to Ireland with my husband’s family. My Mother-in-Law’s family is from County Mayo so we spent most of our time touring the coast and visiting small towns (small because County Mayo was one of the poorest areas in Ireland and suffered some of the greatest losses during the Famine). The thing that struck me the most was how empty most of it seemed, large areas that used to be houses and farms left unattended. Other than being one of the few sunny weeks of the year, we visited the island at just the right time to catch the Daffodils in bloom. These flowers created strange ghost images in the fields, squares, and boundaries where gardens and houses used to be. Places where people had put down roots and only rock walls and daffodils remained.

Daffodils are sort of a funny flower. They’re harbingers of spring, the first to herald the changing of the season and a bright pop of color in a sheet of late winter grey. And though they only bloom for a short period, they can live under the soil for over a hundred years in massive bulbs called Heritage Bulbs. These Heritage Bulbs have a sense of place. You can’t take one cultivated in Ireland, plant it in Dallas, and expect it to thrive. These flowers have a sense of place, preference, and home. It’s also a flower that is planted as a gift to our future selves. It won’t flower until after it’s experienced a chilling period, so many gardeners plant this bulb in autumn. A love note from yourself before winter to remind yourself every winter passes in its own time.

In this way, Daffodils are a record keeper of where humans put down roots, where we call home, and our hopes for the future. They are their own kind of ghost photography that will outlast anyone who has planted them. The series that follows is my love note to Daffodils and the spirits they remember.” - Terra Keck