(He has Risen) & All the Earth Rejoices

My intention was to have this drawing finished for last Sunday, the Easter Sunday I celebrate but alas I wasn’t able to finish in time.

Instead, now completed,  it will commemorate Orthodox Easter, a celebration I favor anyway for its solemnity (and general absence of bunnies).  My intention with this drawing was to integrate my Christian faith with the old gods, the Greenmen and earth spirits that I revere in near equal measure. Greenmen of course our hard to resist , I doodle them aimlessly, I have them painted on my walls and on my ceilings,

and I turn to them time and again (and they seem in to turn to me) . Just the other morning, from one of my numerous monarchial email updates, I received an “invitation” to Charles III upcoming coronation. Its design is  charming, traditional yet bright and optimistic, a cheerful herald to this new Carolean Age ( may it be splendid and hopeful).   The design not only delighted me but inspired with its Greenman theme.

To add further inspiration, walking home from church during Holy Week I noticed for the first time these foliate faced fellows peering down at me. Greenmen it would be then, the perfect symbol of the Earth rejoicing . 

I was further inspired by the earth’s awakening here in Chicago. It is still barren for the most part, but tender shoots are appearing ; the daffodils have been in bloom for some time and the tulips are gathering their courage. It is that period of opposites, fresh blossoms popping from the bones of autumn,  of vivid chartreuse and dull earth- dull, cracked and crazed earth, broken by the vitality just beneath the surface.

If Man is by nature a maker of patterns, he learns that art by Nature herself, I hoped to capture that in this detail.

And that is that. Happy Easter to my Orthodox sister and her family , to my Orthodox friends and in general, happy spring and all that new beginnings offer.

Author: babylonbaroque

I am a painter and printmaker working towards creating a body of work that reflects my own developing aesthetic. New work ,first link. The second link is an on-line portfolio. View all posts by babylonbaroque