It was a hot day in late summer, and I was roaming a nearby tree and shrub nursery for inspiration. I turned around to look up to the clouds and the beautiful leaves of a cottonwood tree stopped my vision at closer range. 

The cottonwood is ubiquitous in the SW and a bit of nuisance in early summer when the winds pick up its "cotton" containing seeds and cast cotton clumps far and wide where they stick to every possible surface, clogging air conditioners, weighing down delicate plants, and causing allergic responses for some. But on the plus side, cottonwoods grow along creeks and get huge providing much needed shade and the sound of their rustling leaves is somehow cooling on a hot summer day. 

What struck me about these heart-shaped leaves was the way they ended in such beautiful curves and the way the mottled green shapes stood out against the moving clouds. The sensual, even sexual, curves put in me mind of the way the human figure curves and dips. I made a dyptych of two images of the leaves. The way they came together reminded of a wedding ceremony. Summer is, after all, a wedding time. In the center of the two images is the couple coming together and their respective friend and family leaves are clustered nearby on either side. It's a stretch of the imagination to see them like this, I suppose. But, why not?