Wednesday, March 27, 2013

craving color this Easter Week

An alternative title to this post was going to be Holi or Holy Week?
 Today, March 27 is the Hindi holiday of Holi which I find enchanting. I want to visit India and be part of this festival as it sounds exactly like the way I want to feel this week. Holi is a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus as a festival of colors. (I took that definition right from wikipedia as well as this photo of colored powders sold in the markets of India) During this celebration, participants throw brightly colored powder at each other ending the day with a wild bonfire.
It sounds like a lot of fun, kind of like Easter in our popular culture with our pastel colored candy, painted eggs, stuffed bunnies, ham dinner, and bonnets for church.
It just so happens to be simultaneous this year with our Easter Holy week during which I am still in Lenten mode, and everything has been very grey and heavy in my life. Recovering from the flu might have something to do with it.

I spent yesterday with a five-year-old friend painting eggs, a satisfying artistic pursuit and here are the results.
And here is my acrylic palette in my studio today, I am working on another sunflower painting and contemplating my own Holi set of colors.