"The Persistence of Spring"
32" x 32" (81.3cm x 81.3cm)
Oil on Linen
"We all go through periods in life when we feel like someone has carelessly turned over our apple cart. We all also know what to do when that happens; right the cart and pick up the apples. You can fill an entire book with brilliant quotes about persistence and perseverance. The list of such quotes from great thinkers can go on and on: Churchill, Emerson, Carnegie, Marcus Aurelius, etc.
This painting was started in the middle of my apple cart being turned over yet again. It was not until I finished the painting, post apple clean up, that I realized this was my way of channeling a Joseph Campbell teaching. I could say many things about the symbolism of bridges, snow, forests, and winter, but I already knew the title when I set this scene and the title is what cued me into remembering a Bill Moyers interview with Joseph Campbell regarding the
Power of Myth.
"I think of grass-you know, every two weeks a chap comes out with a lawnmower and cuts it down. Suppose the grass were to say, 'Well, for Pete's sake, what's the use if you keep getting cut down this way?' Instead, it keeps on growing. That's the sense of the energy of the center. That's the meaning of the image of the Grail, of the inexhaustible fountain, of the source. The source doesn't care what happens once it gives into being. It's the giving and coming into being that counts, and that's the becoming life point in you." - Joseph Campbell.
Just replace the grass and mower with tulips and snow, and voila, I have Joseph Campbell whispering in my ear to keep painting. Thank you sincerely Mr. Campbell."
