Have you ever noticed themes that return again and again in your work over the years? Not necessarily consciously, or intentionally – they just seem to bubble up on their own, asking for more attention and variation.
Writer Margaret Wise Brown once said:
“One idea evolves out of another as in music adding something new and carrying along something old. And each of us alas plays only one or two themes many times in what we write and act in infinite variation.
I wish it were not so.”
~ Margaret Wise Brown
I think of these as Perennial Themes; planted sometime long ago. For me, these themes have been tiny folks & miniature worlds, the natural world, animal characters in cozy sweaters, and always, always The Seasons. These hold inexhaustible joy for me. I can trace them back in my art to childhood.
But I can also understand Brown’s lament – there are times when the work can feel repetitive or, worse, growing stale. So it’s good to have Annuals to plant too; new ideas and fresh topics to dive into and tend for awhile, or new ways of working that will add splashes of new color and interest in your landscape.
Another arm of my illustration work is making art for historical picture books*, and these projects come as welcomed deep-dives into fascinating topics; the life of J.R.R. Tolkien, the Cottingly Fairy photographs, the Great Depression in the American Midwest, Jewish life in 1930’s Vienna, and maritime travel during the War of 1812. Whatever project I’m working on, that topic becomes the all-consuming Thing of the moment.
After a time, the Annuals fade back and finish, and those Perennials are holding steady in the background, waiting for their time to come into bloom again. Some seeds might start as Annuals, but could grow into Perennials (only time reveals which is which). My work is in showing up to plant, tend, and delight in what grows.
Wishing you fruitful creative planting,
p.s. Happy Beltane!
*Historical picture books: John Ronald’s Dragons, Fairy Spell, Home in the Woods, What Rosa Brought, The Left-Handed Fate
My ‘Perennial theme’ books:
I love everything you “grow” ☺️❤️
I love this way of framing it - it had never occurred to me before to connect it with annual/perennial. That's very reassuring somehow. I find your perennials really interesting - and honestly, those annuals are pretty fascinating too! I can see how they could feed/inform each other.
I absolutely agree that we all have our perennial themes, and I find it fascinating asking people about where theirs came from. I was recently surprised to unearth a hidden source of my own: I had no idea why rabbits would occasionally pop up in my paintings, but it turns out I was obsessed with rabbits at age 5 because my father had taken me to see Watership Down and it had quite an impact! I had somehow completely forgotten. At least consciously. Uncovering childhood drawings from that time that were all rabbits brought it back. So I guess for me, it might just be rabbits all the way down.