Viriditas--What Makes Your Sap Rise?

Spring Beauties, watercolor and pastel

 It is the primavera season when the veil of green spreads over the land and the urge to grow or bloom begins to suggest itself. I felt this on my recent visit to the Netherlands where I feasted my eyes on abundant crocus and daffodil blooms and enjoyed the fresh look of Delft Blue. But, I can't help it even more since coming home and feeling the greening of the landscape. It is somewhat like years past, but with its own twist this year. 

      

Eternal Ephemeral, watercolor and pastel

This vivacious, irrepressible feeling is what I think about when I consider the 12th century Abbess, Hildegard of Bingen's concept of viriditas--her word for a greening that comes from God--a most desirable state of being. I envision this phenomenon as being rather like the sap rising in maple trees as they warm in Spring. Viriditas manifests itself in me most reliably in this season. It has always been so, but I felt the green growing most acutely for about a decade when Fay Moore, my colorful pastel mentor, would come to town in time for the Keeneland Spring Meet and the Kentucky Derby to teach an assorted gathering of could be artists the joys of seeing and creating. The creative endeavors of the days long workshop were sublimely in tune with the fresh season. I would leave early in the morning with the slants of sunlight backlighting tender greens and blooms beyond the garage and enter a world where the possibilities for beauty seemed endless. Everyone had their own view and Fay helped us put it down on paper. More about this here.

Now, I am older and I find that the quality of my viriditas is mellowing. It is still something that must be received. The Dutch trip helped me to see this. The Dutch Lawns were ebullient and fresh, perhaps nuanced by being cultivated before becoming naturalized. Perhaps I am becoming naturalized after being cultivated in the first place by a decade of Fay Moore inspiration, my art community and my harp community. The Vermeer exhibit at the Rijks Museum also clarified my perspective: I am a small point on which the whole world and beyond can gently illuminate. The prevalence of the Delft Blue aesthetic added another element to my idea of viriditas. It may be blue, but, as I reflected on a walk at Ashland Estate after my return home, the Delft Blue sensibility represented a kind of cozy clarity that seems particularly useful at this point in my life. I even came up with a Haiku for this:

Cozy clarity

blue sky, Redbud, Spring Beauties

at home on the lawn

Perhaps not as rambunctious as an earlier viriditas. It is simpler, calmer and a bit more polished, curated, tended. But there is still growth and it is still Spring!!

Dutch Lawn, Delft Blue, watercolor and pastel

Would you like to explore your viriditas? I made a video for you