A new year holds all the promise in the world. We should be refreshed and renewed after a break from the toil of the year’s routines. We should be refocused for the tasks ahead. Revisiting and revising goals. All of these things can be exciting and re-energising.
There are many amongst us who are more reticent when it comes to thinking forward. Those whose children have grown up and reached milestone birthdays or are moving away from home for the first time. Or both.
These times are fraught with the ache of looking back – remembering when they were little, being reminded of that time and reminiscing about how things were. Times of great change often jolt a trip down memory lane. For better or worse.
While our small people are still small-ish, it’s easy to dream of the day when the noise is no longer a constant brain jacking. Momentarily.
One of the strongest triggers here are the artworks that instantly take you back to the time when; when you stared at the framed dancing elephants print on the wall wishing they would go to sleep; when the sleepy watercolour hippo made you want to crawl under the rug and close your eyes. Momentarily. Or when the dreamy colours and shapes in a little abstract oil painting gave you the extra pep you needed in your step.
Art can be a powerful reminder. The little painting that nanny and poppy brought back from an overseas trip will always hold that subtext. It’s subliminal, but it’s there.
In the spirit of reframing the sad loss, ‘we’ll miss you’ narrative, I suggest a new artwork to fill the void. The ‘I got my wall back’ artwork. The one that will always remind you of that time when you gained more freedom. When life became a little quieter. And the one that will always have a little tinge of that time when..
Artwork II - Little World for Them by Gerald Ged Jones, oil on canvas
Artwork III - Little Breath by Susie Dureau, oil on canvas