PARADISUS #1

PARADISUS is defined in Latin as paradise or park. After visiting Japan many years ago, my appreciation and recognition for natural elements grew deeper. I was then reminded of my time as a young child, when I spend countless hours exploring what felt to be the more serene place, the Ritsurin Garden located in Takamatsu, Japan. In this garden lays the azalea flowering shrubs. Many are unknown to the azalea’s potency and toxicity. It is beautiful, but dangerous. The combination of beauty and pain is a known concept; the juxtaposition of something so delicate can be remarkably resilient and potent is what inclined the creation of PARADISUS, a fictional place or, to some, believed to exist.