Image of the Week: Midnight, Times Square
© D. Yael Bernhard
Here's an illustration from my children's book Happy New Year!, published in 1996 by Dutton Books. The book gives young readers a pictorial survey of different calendars and customs for bringing in the new year – including the dropping of the 12-foot-wide glittering ball from One Times Square in New York City at midnight on New Year's Eve. The tradition dates back to 1907, instituted by Adolph Ochs, owner of The New York Times, and attracts many thousands of celebrants from all over the world, eager to pack into the famed theater district's central square. So diverse is this jubilant crowd that I was able to simply depict random people in the illustration, without researching or even thinking about what they should look like. As long as they were dressed for winter, I could paint anyone I wanted.
To draw the setting in a way that's true to the place, I went to Times Square and did some sketching on the spot, took photos, and spent some time people-watching. A few people watched me, too, as I leaned on parked cars or crouched on steps while sketching. Times Square is a busy place, teeming with the life of the city. These days, it's so lit up as to outshine the ball that falls just once a year. One can only wonder what so much flashing light does to the human nervous system. Overstimulation is the name of the game, and that's what I tried to convey in my illustration, with chaotic shapes, densely-packed detail, and bright colors against a dark background. Of course, some of the details are already outdated – such as the billboard for Fuji film, long gone along with film itself. Today I would have to illustrate hundreds of cell phones held aloft by the crowd!
The illustration stretches across a double spread (both pages of the book), only part of which is shown above. Here's a detail from the facing page:
Instead of just packing in more crowd, here I got into painting little scenes inside the windows. Each one hints at a story, which children can easily imagine. Who's that kitty cat in the window?
This illustration was pure fun to create. Once I got the architecture of the buildings in place, the rest was easy. I'm particularly fond of painting windows, as the possibilities for designing and filling them are endless.
Happy New Year! also shows new years traditions from China, Japan, West Africa, India, the British Isles, Russia, Ecuador, ancient Rome, and more. I had to learn about each of these cultures in order to create authentic scenes. Curiously, many cultures place as much or more emphasis on letting go of the old year as on welcoming the new. In Nigeria the old year is symbolically chased away; in Russia it's burned as an effigy; in Southeast Asia people throw water on each other to wash away bad deeds; and in Bali a checkered figure of a demon is paraded through the streets as drums and gongs drive away evil spirits. It would be interesting if our New Years resolutions focused on letting go of something from the past year, in addition to new aspirations for the year to come.
Reviving what has been lost is yet another theme, ritually expressed in the Iroquois custom of stirring the embers of the family hearth to rekindle warmth and light for the coming year. Celebration itself also takes different forms in different cultures – such as the Japanese penchant for playing a game resembling badminton on the first day of the year. Laughter is required, lest the spirits that populate their homes bring a sour mood into the fledgling year. It's as if the year itself is a newborn babe that needs protection – perhaps from the likes of Kronos, the Greek god of time (and origin of the word "chronology").
The turning of the year takes many forms and takes place at different times, in accordance with seasons of the land and traditions old and new. We spin tales around the wheel of time, weaving meaning into our lives. To step back and survey this medley of beliefs is to gain a sense of how, as one elementary school teacher aptly put it, "We're all the same, in all different ways." We're all human in facing the passage of time.
My own published calendar, The Jewish Eye 5783/2023 Calendar of Art, goes on sale tomorrow in my webstore and on Amazon, and will be available for just $9.
Happy New Year to you! May you leave behind the old, welcome the new, rekindle the light, and meet 2023 with strength and conviction.
D Yael Bernhard