A Reconfiguration of Botticelli’s “Spring” in Spring

Situated up on the hill beyond my dorms, I cleared my afternoon’s schedule (sorry professors) in an act of consideration for my well-being. I had been recently feeling disconnected from myself and was in dire need of some solitude to translate my thoughts and feelings into words strewn along the page of my journal, and on a blank page of my art collage book.

Flipping through a book of Sandro Botticelli’s famous paintings I found earlier last year at Beers Books in Sacramento, I was drawn to this particular piece of work. Titled “Spring” or Primavera, its angelic and ethereal nature captured my eye, and felt like a perfect depiction of my calm and idyllic demeanor that day on the hill.

In a celebration of the blooming flowers and green grass sprouting profusely all around me, I took part of this beautiful painting and made it my own. Depicting the three sisters known as “The Graces” as well as Mercury, the god of commerce, I entwined it with bits of the nature surrounding me.

Combining the lush green grass growing around the hill I was laying on, I accentuated features of Botticelli’s work with the work of mother nature.

Sprawled out, napping on my blanket in between creating this, I rolled over and snapped this picture. My take on spring: the birth of new life, new beginnings and great big, sprouting love.