The Fiery Cousin – Torch Ginger

Acrylic on Canvas, 48” x 36”

Part of the series: The Art of Medicine

✨ Introduction: When a Flower Becomes a Flame

This is a story about healing and growing roots.,, it's about a flower waiting for the right time to bloom in paint, just as I was learning to root more deeply into my own life.

The Fiery Cousin is the first piece in my new series, The Art of Medicine, which explores plant allies not just as subjects of botanical beauty, but as sacred carriers of ancestral knowledge, spiritual presence, and deep healing.

This painting came through after a four-month creative pause, during which I was focused on building and expanding my People & Culture Consulting business Elevate Talent Solutions... but something was stirring.

🌿 Torch Ginger – Botanical Ally, Temple Guardian

Torch Ginger (Etlingera Elatior) is not exactly the same ginger we use in our kitchens.. but it's a close relative and part of the same Zingiberaceae family. This particular plant grows tall and bold in tropical forests and temple gardens of Southeast Asia. It is often planted near shrines, homes, and sacred spaces — not only for its beauty, but for its symbolic presence.

Culturally, it has been used in:

• Temple offerings, to honour deities, ancestors, or life transitions

• Traditional cuisine, for its zesty, invigorating stalks and buds

• Spiritual cleansings, paired with other sacred herbs to clear heavy energy

• Women's postpartum healing baths, to warm and revive the womb

  
  

It is a flower of guardianship. Of presence. Of strength that does not demand attention, but radiates it.

🔴 Muladhara: Root Medicine Through Art

While taking a long artistic pause after initially starting my work on this piece in January 2025.. I found myself immersed in root chakra healing. The Muladhara chakra (often associated with the colour red and the energetic base on the bottom of our spine), in yogic systems, governs our sense of stability, home, belonging, and embodied safety. It is the base from which we rise.

Then when recently, I found myself enjoying some red light therapy in my studio.. I finally really noticed the unfinished painting of this radiant red flower on my easel. My teacher reminded me just a week prior I was in a process of root activation.... of finally landing, after a long journey of transitions and reinvention. The alignment felt impossible to ignore.

The Fiery Cousin carries this frequency. It is not just a botanical study. It is an energetic imprint. It anchors. It remembers. It invites.

🎨 Process & Presence

This painting was completed in my first-ever private art studio — a space that itself feels like a milestone. Working with layers of acrylic, I focused on pushing on the contrast and luminosity. I wanted the red to feel alive, not flat. Glowing, but not polished. The flower needed to feel like it was becoming, not just being. The dark background isn’t just contrast — it represents mystery and emergence.

As with all my pieces, this work was created with intention and care. It’s infused with presence — and yes, with a little help (and occasional sabotage) from my two Bengal kittens / studio assistants.

🌕 Final Reflections

I don’t think of this painting as a product. I think of it as a living altar. Something that transforms a space not just visually, but energetically. A reminder that rooting is sacred. That healing is nonlinear. That beauty can also be protection.

The Fiery Cousin is the beginning of something larger. A series of paintings that remember what our ancestors never forgot — that plants are more than decorative. They are companions. They are medicine. They are mirrors.

If this piece speaks to you, you can view more about it here →

Thank you for visiting. I am hoping this work will offer some glimmer of healing and hope to others also.