Flowers of Unknown Origin by Lydia Cooley Freeman
Lydia Cooley Freeman was not only the wife and collaborator of Don Freeman (author of Corduroy), she was also an artist in her own right. Indeed, Don once wrote "Of the two of us, Lydia is the better artist!" But she tended to set her own artistic talent aside until after her husband passed away. In 1988 she moved to Zürich, Switzerland to be closer to her family and continued to develop her own artwork. Her fine watercolors and oils slowly transformed into abstract designs, often retaining an organic kernel. She worked on her "haikus" and poems that touched on deep themes as she looked back on her life: loss of love and friendships, facing aging and death alone. Sometimes searing in their honesty, they all express her soul-searching: mercilessly honest, sometimes tortured, many exposing her innermost self, her wounds, her regrets, anguish, gratitude and hope. Always utterly genuine, they express her soul-searching and coming to grips with life as she faces death: exuberant, anguished, but always with sinceri honesty and integrity. Lydia's Flowers of Unknown Origin presents a selection of these poems and her abstract "doodles" – as she called them – in a completely new edition with an Afterword by David Cooper.