'The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what has passed away
Or what is yet to be’  - Leonard Cohen, ‘Anthem’

Harriet Gillett’s limited edition print ‘Start again I hear them say’ is inspired by the lyrics of Leonard Cohen. The artist visualises the concept that time continues to pass: with each new day nature resets and we start again. The print serves as our reminder to live in the here and now and be fully aware of the present. The image in the print is a crop from the artist’s original painting ‘Two for joy’. The painting depicts the artist’s subject moving restlessly around her sofa as she speaks about disparate topics while the birds on the wallpaper behind her seem to come alive. Gillett painted two versions of the same scene, one dark and blurred and the other light and serene to mimic the two mental states her subject seemed to flit between. She intended the birds to be a metaphor of transition from darkness to light, the journey from one state of consciousness to the other. As creatures that bridge two realms, both the land and the air, birds in mythology often represent the spiritual or a portal to it.

See Harriet Gillett’s artist profile and other print