Rebirth, 1908
By Odilon Redon
Oil on Canvas, 18" x 40"
It’ll never happen I know, but shouldn’t New Years be in March to align with the Vernal Equinox. Spring is when it’s visibly noticeable that life is anew. The days are longer and slightly warmer as we pull closer to the sun, and nature begins its resurgence. Having New Years on December 31 is dumb upon consideration. Its cold, dark and a week removed from arguably the biggest holiday of the year (Christmas). I propose the new holiday season synchs up with Daylight Savings and St. Patrick’s Day (which is signified with green, also the color associated with spring). Shed the pretense of champagne toast and formal ware at hotels and resorts, in leu of cheers with beers and park gatherings with pop up wiffleball games. Perhaps, we could celebrate the “New Year” by community events that focus on cleaning up our parks and communal spaces in anticipation of a flood of blooms, and budding trees, and I suppose you can keep the fireworks.
Instead of a countdown midnight, you have an extra hour of daylight to breakout the grill or gather over family dinner parties. Usually, the Vernal Equinox is at or around 5:30 in the morning, as we wake to a new day rising, we celebrate the rebirth of a new season and all the potential of a new year with elaborate breakfast parties. I know, it’ll never happen but it’s nice it’s to imagine.
La Primavera, 1482
By Sandro Botticelli
Oil on board
Rebirth Earth, 2016
By Helena Artualeza
Acrylic and Casein on canvas, 27" x 39"
This spring has a more meaningful significance than most in my lifetime. We are still living with the pandemic but there’s a light on the horizon. We are racing towards herd immunity with more and more vaccines becoming readily available. I will get my second dose next week. Slowly, life will return to normal, even it takes several months to do so, and the first steps down that path begins this spring.
The weather is seldom cooperative, we all endure what seems like endless days of gray matter. While 40 or 50 degrees is above freezing, it still sucks, just a little less. Yet, the spring has its own strength and determination, and its coming ready or not. No flash blizzard or pandemic will stop the flowers spouting through to the surface, reaching for the sun, (I refer to last springs blog post “The Defiance of Daffodils”).
Spring in Long Island, 1919
By David Burliuk
Oil on canvas
Here in the continental US, the full breadth of spring’s rebirth isn’t fully realized until probably early May. Tulips and Irises pepper residential yards and they bloom in concert at our local parks. People grab the kids and the family dog and go to those parks to bond and to acknowledge the joy of the rebirth. Artists are inspired by the sparks of color, and the prominent return of green to the landscape through gray or whitewashed skies.
Spring Sun, 1899
By Victor Borisov-Musatov
Tempara on canvas
The theme of rebirth or resurgence is a popular subject among artist or anyone creative, for that matter. Artist generally reinvent themselves every few years, interest evolve and techniques as well. Sometimes, their work is capsulated by a series or body of work. For example, think Picasso. He started with brilliantly rendered figurative work to the physical deconstruction of those figures in Cubism then moved on to the meditation of themes in a single-color hue (his Blue Period then his Red Period, etc.). Hell, as individuals (artist or not), we evolve and change. Perhaps this driven by age or circumstance, but what ever the case, we are not the same people we once were and hopefully for the better.
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