Tatyana Grechina, Botanical Breaths, 5 × 7 inches, oil on canvas, 2026.

My old roommate in Philly once gave me a small cutting of a plant back in 2014. It came with me to South Carolina, where it thrived in my father’s sunroom and grew massive - nearly as tall as the vaulted ceilings. In 2024, I brought a clipping back to Colorado with me, and last year it finally blossomed into a creature of its own.