Blossoms

In the interim between the wars Junger [author of “Storm of Steel,” a WW1 account of trench warfare] pondered in his writing how the life of the individual might function outside of the political and technological system, achieving in “The Adventurous Heart” an almost mesmerizing description of the objects of the day to day reality that he encounters sometimes enhanced by drugs. His goal was to describe the surface of the real with such intensity so as to reveal something of a hidden reality. It also represents a shift of weight from the individual subsumed in the political to its own private inner magic… I was taken aback by the first image described in “Adventurous Heart” in overwhelming detail of a tiger lily, which in turn brought to mind a painting by Don Shambroom of a daylily represented in almost stereoscopic detail. There is no postmodern cynicism in this painting… The realm of Blakean innocence finds its place in Don’s openness to the opening of a flower.