I can buy myself flowers... II
Adriana Maar
Year: 2025
Method: Painting
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 27.5 x 19.6 in / 70 x 50 cm
Weight 2.5 lb / 1.1 kg
Exhibitions: N/A
This artwork is SOLD. Prints available for sale on Saatchi Art.
- Original piece
- Certificate of authenticity included
- Ships worldwide
- Frame not included
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More about the artwork
This work is based on a previous piece I had created under the same title, returning to its core idea while allowing a new emotional language to emerge. I can buy myself flowers…II is a commissioned work in which I revisit the notion of self-love and emotional autonomy through a different symbolic framework. While the title remains unchanged, the substitution of sunflowers for hydrangeas subtly shifts the meaning of the piece, opening a more intimate and layered reflection on care, affection, and the ways we nurture ourselves.
In this painting, a woman embraces an abundant bouquet of hydrangeas that fully conceals her face. Unlike sunflowers—symbols of outward energy, optimism, and expansion—hydrangeas carry a quieter emotional weight. They speak of tenderness, gratitude, vulnerability, and complex inner states. Their clustered blooms suggest multiplicity rather than singular direction: many emotions coexisting, many needs held at once. For me, this choice reflects a form of self-love that is less performative and more introspective—one that allows softness, contradiction, and emotional depth.
The act of holding the bouquet close to the body becomes an intimate gesture of self-containment. By obscuring the face, I emphasize that self-worth does not require visibility or external validation. Love, in this context, is not something to be displayed but something to be held, protected, and cultivated inwardly. The hydrangeas become a metaphor for emotional care: attentive, patient, and responsive to change.
The phrase I can buy myself flowers… II —borrowed directly from Miley Cyrus’s song Flowers—functions here as a quiet affirmation rather than a bold declaration. It reminds me that autonomy can be gentle, that choosing oneself does not always look like strength or independence, but sometimes like compassion, sensitivity, and emotional presence. In a world that often equates self-love with confidence alone, this piece insists on honoring its softer forms.
As a commissioned work, this painting also speaks to how personal narratives shape universal ideas. While the concept of self-love remains central, the choice of hydrangeas allows the work to resonate with a more nuanced emotional landscape—one where care, gratitude, and vulnerability are equally powerful expressions of autonomy.
Self-love is not always loud or radiant. Sometimes it is quiet, layered, and deeply tender—a practice of holding oneself with care. “
Adriana Maar