Image of the Week: The Marriage Spiral
© Durga Yael Bernhard
For the past eighteen years, I've had a selection of about thirty paintings and linoleum block prints hanging at Full Moon Resort in Oliverea, NY – about fifteen minutes from my home. Full Moon is a beautiful retreat center nestled in a bucolic valley in the heart of the Catskill Mountains. You couldn't ask for a lovelier place to get away – or to get married.
Six or seven years ago Full Moon began to dedicate itself almost exclusively to weddings. There's a place on the wall next to the reception desk where one of my paintings is featured, so I decided to create something with a wedding theme just for this spot. The result was The Marriage Spiral, painted in gouache on pale grey paper.
I've always liked spirals as a metaphor for relationships (so did my ex-husband, by the way). Relationships are cyclical, growing with the seasons and phases of life. Yet this cycle, as it goes around, is never quite the same. It's not a circular track, but rather something that changes with each revolution, getting bigger or smaller, depending on how you view it. Is this spiral moving inward toward the center, or is it expanding outward from it?
As for the couple, I tried to make the two faces merge into one. Since the bride usually dresses fancier than the groom at a typical wedding, I gave her more prominence. Of course, this painting was created before gay marriage was legal. I'd have to do it differently now . . . although it's tempting to say that even in a gay marriage, one person embodies the feminine and the other the masculine. One way or another, opposites attract.
As for that little loop that unexpectedly juts off the spiral – I was trying to symbolize the unexpected twists in the path of a marriage. That which is most unexpected and challenging in a committed partnership is also what makes it unique. The same is true of artistic creation. Those glitches are both a blessing and a curse.
The Marriage Spiral is for sale. If you're interested, let me know and I'll send more information. If you're local and want to see some of my older work, stop by Full Moon. Several paintings are in the main lobby, and the rest are in the guest room hallway on the second floor.
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard