Frozen Beauty

Photo provided

While growing up in suburban Hartford, Mary Kocol developed an appreciation for the gardens her parents ­lovingly tended. When her mother passed away last May, Kocol sought to capture the fragility of life through those very flowers. Inspired by art as varied as Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Fragonard’s landscapes, and ikebana, the Somerville artist created ice plates embedded with her mother’s frozen flora.

Kocol’s stunning photographs of flowers suspended in ice debuted at Gallery Naga last September and have since toured around Massachusetts, with a brief stop in New York. “Garden elements and ice are temporary; the photograph becomes the permanent art object—the record that they once briefly existed,” she says.

Kocol hopes the series will encourage people to practice the Japanese tradition of hanami (flower-viewing) and “ponder the ephemerealness of the seasons, blossoms, and life.”

Fanciful English Red Roses, price upon request, Gallery Naga, 67 Newbury St., Boston, 617-267-9060, gallerynaga.com.