The Year's at the Spring 1920

Harry Clarke made this drawing, "The Year's at the Spring," with pen and ink. I wonder about this woman who is draped in garlands of flowers, like spring personified. Did you ever draw with pen and ink when you were a kid? I did. Think of the patience and skill required to lay down each line, building up form and texture with tiny marks. Notice the details in the woman’s dress, those delicate frills like tiny scallops, and the gentle curve of her neck. There's a confidence and a vulnerability, a kind of tentative reaching that feels so very human. It’s like Clarke is right there, next to you, whispering in your ear. His drawing reminds me of Beardsley, but with an Irish twist. All of us artists, we’re always looking and learning from each other, riffing on the same themes, finding new ways to say the same things. And that’s how art keeps going, how it stays alive.