It’s a lovely, sunshiny day here in the Valleys of South Wales, if a tad breezy. The sunlight is diffused by clouds so it’s not washing out the greens of spring that are tentatively showing themselves.
All of which is quite appropriate as it’s the Spring Equinox today. The appeared to sun enter Aries at 03:59 UT, to be precise, which marks the start of astronomical spring as the Earth continues on it’s perpetual journey around the sun, regardless of the pandemic and crisis occurring here on the planet’s surface.
I had a good night’s sleep last night and woke feeling much better emotionally. The sunshine is helping with that too. I’m always much more resilient, emotionally speaking, when I have enough quality sleep.
That doesn’t mean I’m not concerned about Covid-19; I am. On so many levels. However, the clouds clearing, the sun shining, the Earth making it to the point of Vernal Equinox once again, just shows that time continues it’s inexorable progress.
Although the existence of the pandemic means that humanity needs to alter it’s behaviour and activities for the foreseeable future, it doesn’t mean it will always be this way. Just as the rain doesn’t last forever.
It means we need to find new ways to find contentment in our lives, to be considerate and compassionate towards others, on scales ranging from neighbourly to global. We also need to show this kindness and consideration to the living things we share this planet with as well as the Earth itself.
The crisis is bringing out both the ugliness and beauty in humanity in so many different areas of our lives and society. Life will never be the same after this, but what those changes will be I don’t know yet. No one does. Some things will remain the same, but there are likely to be profound changes in other areas of society, and some more subtle changes too.
Anyway, to the art.
I started drawing this tile last night. I used Uniball Unipin pens with a 4″ x 4″ piece of ClaireFontaine mixed media paper. After scanning the drawing, I cleaned some smudges up digitally. Then, I added a coloured background, a texture and then shading and subtle colour to the drawing.
I chose greens and blues for the background and they way I applied them makes me think of the golden greens and sunlight of spring pushing the blues of winter away.
Spring is a glorious time of year, when the world really starts to come alive with colour once again. Life is awakening after the sleep of winter and there is hope of growth and future harvests.
No matter how things may seem, the fear and panic the media and politicians are whipping up, the worries people have for their health, jobs, families, their future, it’s a time to remember that this too will pass and there is hope on, hopefully, not too distant horizon.
In the meantime, I’ll be doing what I can to bring a little bit of colour and light into the world each day. Sometimes I’ll share my musings about it all, how my emotional and mental health are doing. I hope these will help you to know you’re not alone, that it’s OK to not be OK, and inspire you to get creative to help lift your spirits during the present circumstances.
Angela Porter 