https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elbridge_Ayer_Burbank_The_Sunflower.jpg
The Sunflower (1894) was painted by the American artist Elbridge Ayer Burbank (1858-1949)
Sponsor: Brian Strand, Contest 1472
Without the sun, sleeping; perhaps dreaming, in the grasp of a brown boy's clasp. Boy’s head in the crook of his bent elbow; his lighter skin contrasts with his chocolate shirt, buttoned at the wrist. He leans contentedly, over the wooden chair, whilst the head of the sunflower with wide open sunshine, dreams that it’s a gift given by God, and gladly sleeps and dreams until awakened. The room’s quiescent darkness like a warm womb. The breast of the flower’s stem leans close to the chair; large green leaf, rolled; smaller leaf, chewed. The boy’s hands in contrast of light and dark. Modeling the innocence in sleep, the one where a mother, or an artist falls in love once again, and again, and over again… God, love each of these children, given from above. We wait for the flower to stand up; one day a man will be as straight as the chair; and weathered and worn. For now, and until the end, he will sleep on a private collector’s wall or perhaps be sheltered in a museum.
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