Early spring has this ridiculously beautiful facade

Early spring has this ridiculously beautiful facade that reminds me of Damien Hirst’s slightly lame attempt to get to the essence of what blossoms really do to our collective psyche.

His 2021 blossom paintings just didn’t have a patch on Mother Nature, even though they were inspired by pictures created by his own mother, a casual painter. But perhaps that was part of his mission — to say, ‘I can paint blossoms, but they will never be as exquisite as the real thing.’

I doubt any artist creates something specifically to demonstrate their own inadequacy. But if that’s what Damien did, it must have been something entirely new in fine art. Kudos to him for the humility. He’s said the series was about transient beauty, which seems fair enough. Nature, after all, has been doing transient beauty rather successfully, for a while now, without needing a gallery.

Anyway, back to the subject. I guess the point is this: if nature can start all over again and produce boundless beauty after ugliness, then so can we.

I drove an old friend around to find the early blossoms blooming around us, so she could shoot them with her phone for her Instagram account. We noticed the signs of spring: better light, slightly warmer air, and vivacious household pets gearing up for the mating season.

I’m not at all superstitious, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it all works out well for them.