Man gets up-close and personal with flowers

Don Byram's camera lens mingles so close to nature that flower lovers may struggle to identify his up-close and unusually personal scenery. That's what the artist desires.

No tags printed with the Latin names of species appear next to Byram's photographs. Rather, he asks viewers, especially those in doubt, to drop their reason and feel what's printed on his canvasses.

"There is beauty everywhere. You just have to be sensitive to it," he said. "You have to keep your eyes and ears, and most importantly your heart, open to it."

Presenting artwork that appeals to the emotional senses is how Byram, who lives in Watkinsville, approaches his first solo exhibit titled "Intimacy" at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia.

His photos look like paintings at times. Printed on canvasses and often saturated with color, the lines appear both defined and blurred. Many images are framed so tight that telling a rose from a tulip is a test.

Yet the artist's intentions are made clear with the words Byram positions next to each of his 36 framed pieces. The phrases beckon and cry alike, drawing all who love closer.

"He Loves Me Not," for example, pictures two Brown-Eyed Susans. One is positioned in the foreground with its roundup of petals alert and shining. In the background, meanwhile, the petals of another arch to the ground as though weeping.

"The Price I Pay," one of the few black-and-white images, is more serious and speaks to a person's self-awareness when something has gone wrong. The plant appears aggressive, reaching like a "sea monster," Byram said, adding, "You make a mistake, do something you're not proud of, say something you wish you could take back, that's the price you pay."

The work is in contrast to "Like Lovers Dew," which is flat-out provocative - for two flower petals, that is. The soft, yellow tulip lids appear separate yet gently connected and glistening. "I have people tell me that one makes them blush," Byram said, with a smile and shrug.

Physical sensuality is not the sole focus of his show, however. Themes include happiness, friendship, sadness, motherhood, confusion and admiration.

"Broadening one's view from just the sensual, we find the intimacy of parent and child, in family, between brothers and sisters, the close friends from school, from work, from church - the connections we embrace from our social choices ... " he writes. "Intimacy then is the personal and private way we interact and relate to our surroundings. This exhibit is an exploration of that quest."

Byram's own quest is creative in nature. He began courting his artistic side a few years ago after moving to the Athens area with Cecile, his wife of nearly 25 years.

A native of Arkansas, Byram spent most of his life working for Walmart as a general manager. Family obligations took precedence over his passion until the move. "I wa

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