These images are accessible, direct and visually arresting. Yet they evoke an unmistakable sense of mystery, perhaps exposing the orchid's tenuous connection to the mundane plane of existence to which less exotic forms of life are relegated.
Her watercolors are reminiscent of the starkly beautiful eighteenth- and nineteenth-century botanical etchings and lithographs created by artist/printmaker teams such as Edwards/Sanforn and Steward/Lizars. However, Pam's orchids do not portray beauty in isolation, but as a revelation of the interaction between observers and observed.
Active response yields a depth of vision denied the passive observer. Those whose passions have been ignited by the orchid already know this truth. Others can glimpse it through these provocative images.
