Tribute to Auseklis Ozols
For Auseklis Ozols
September 22, 1941 - September 24, 2025
On September 24 I awoke to the latest bloom of my night-blooming cereus. Later that day I found out that Auseklis Ozols had just died. It was from Auseklis that I first learned of the night-blooming cereus: the unassuming plant whose occasional magnificent flower opens so dramatically in the middle of the night and is all but done with its brief miracle by the time the sun is fully up. My favorite painting of one is by him, and I’ve long loved the story of him painting the bloom, glowing in cool moonlight, from life in the middle of the night.
Auseklis was the teacher who shaped me most as a painter. He taught me much of what I know about painting, and perhaps even more important, he taught me how to truly look the world.
This painting is for him, with gratitude and love.