I

Until I started school, I slept in my parents’ room. As I swim through the depths of my mind for memories of that time, I see sunflowers. Rather, a painting of sunflowers hanging on the bedroom wall.

I remember finding it strange the different directions the flowers face. I learned sunflowers face the sun.

In truth, sunflowers follow the sun only in their youth. Before blooming, they follow to gather more sunlight for photosynthesis. And shortly after blooming, they follow to gather warmth for pollination. Once mature, however, they stop moving, giving up sunlight and warmth to face their own direction.

I left my parents’ room before I could fully understand the painting.

II

The painting comes to us from Vincent van Gogh. His peers thought sunflowers coarse and unrefined. Van Gogh, though, seemed to enjoy these qualities. He painted 7 iterations of sunflowers in vases, 5 of which now found in art museums around the world.

Van Gogh painted sunflowers for his friend painter Paul Gauguin. When he heard that Gauguin would be coming, he painted several still lifes of sunflowers to decorate the guest bedroom. To my delight, Gauguin actually painted van Gogh painting sunflowers:

For all that they meant to him, van Gogh wanted to become synonymous with sunflowers. As he had hoped, friends brought sunflowers to his funeral.

III

Today, I biked to 3 stores: one to pick up a vase, another to pick up flowers, and a final to pick up a photo.

My dad told me his mom would have liked yellow flowers. To me, sunflowers symbolized light and warmth. To van Gogh, sunflowers symbolized gratitude. I wonder what they meant to 奶奶.