Looking for feedback

Hi Colter. First of all, welcome to the community, hopefully you'll fit right in. Second, this is old school still-life, very classic approach, so I don't know if I'll give the right advice, but here we go.
First thing I see is the lighting, your main light is so weak in power that the flames overpowered the scene, you know that the brightest part will always get your attention. While i like the effect on the bust of this secondary light, I feel that in these types of shots you had always a main light, usually a big bright window for a directional, contrasting main light, and then you would have the rear lights (they look like light painted with a candle or something like that, yes?). It seems to me you should have more light on the roses, to see that volume and texture of the dried up bulbs, and the bust being classically lit with rembrandt lighting perhaps, the fine detail of the vase should come up with a little more contrasty lighting.
I feel your composition is a little cramped, you could have all the elements in a horizontal framing, and this would give you more space to tell your story.
Color, I feel this is more about the textures and shadows than color in the scene, so you could get away with it being B&W, but this isn't really a thing you could judge as having to be. It's your choice, really, and perhaps you wanted to show the warm light of the fire?
I feel this types of shoots are more about symbols and memes, and this is where my knowledge ends. Could you elaborate a little more on your story?