Calla (Sonoma County)

Aryan Chappell

"Calla (Sonoma County)" is a pigment print, printed digitally using archival inks, printed in 2016 from a negative taken in Sonoma County, California.

White calla lily flowers' sensuous lines have inspired painters for centuries and photographers for decades. The flowers are commonly used in Easter services and have come to represent resurrection and rebirth. An image of a broken calla lily flower indicates someone who died before their time.

Photographer Aryan Chappell was born on April 10, 1964 to photographer Walter Chappell and artist Nancy Barrett Dickinson in Big Sur, California. Chappell spent much of his childhood between Northern California and Taos, New Mexico where his parents had homes and studios.

In 1984 he moved to Sonoma County, California, taking courses at Santa Rosa Junior College in photography from John Le Baron. There, he was an exhibitor in the group show, "50 Years of Sonoma County Photography" in 1986. In 1987 he held his first major solo show, "The Salt Point Portfolio", at the Bodega Landmark Gallery in the town of Bodega, California. Chappell was awarded the Kelly Scholarship for Art from the S.R. Junior College in 1989; he then began his studies at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California.

Upon receiving his B.A. in art in 1992, Chappell worked and exhibited regularly throughout the North Bay, including shows at the Student Union Art Gallery at Sonoma State, and the California Museum of Art in Santa Rosa, CA. In 1994 he accepted a position as an Advisory Board Member for the ROP Photography Program at Ukiah High School in Ukiah, CA, which he kept until 2004.

His work, greatly influenced by the style of his photographer father, who introduced him to the artform, primarily focused on nature and landscapes. He often took long sojourns to rural areas in California, Colorado, Hawaii, and New Mexico to focus on the flora of his surrounds. In 2013 he traveled to Italy where he created an extensive portfolio of works centered around the Tuscany countryside and well as major cities such as Rome and Florence.

In 2000, after the death of his father, he became the documenter of the Walter Chappell estate, eventually becoming the director of the Walter Chappell Archive and trust. In 2011, he founded the Aryan Chappell Studio of photographic arts. Chappell continues to photograph and exhibit today.

Gardener Julie Martens Forney comments about the history of the calla: "One early calla lily meaning originates in ancient Greek culture, where the flower was thought to represent magnificent beauty. This origin stems from a tale regarding Hercules as a baby. His father, the Greek god Zeus, had conceived him with an earthly woman, which meant he would lack divine, supernatural powers. Zeus drugged his goddess wife Hera to trick her into nursing the baby Hercules (to give him divine powers).

As the drug wore off, she came to her senses and flung the nursing baby from her. As she did so, some drops of her breast milk dropped to earth and sprouted to form calla lilies. The lilies were endued with god-like beauty, which made the goddess Venus jealous, so she cursed the blossom, resulting in the formation of the central spike inside the cupped bloom.

The spike inside the calla lily flower is actually the true flower; the outer petal part is a type of leaf. The ancient Egyptians and Romans recognized the phallic nature of the inner spike. The Egyptian culture adopted a calla lily meaning of fertility, while the Romans focused on a calla lily meaning of sexuality."