Albeit a bit belated, I would like to wish you a “Happy New Year” on behalf of the Beach Museum of Art. Some may find this latent sentiment tiresome now that we have reached mid-January. I believe that given current circumstances, it bears repeating over and over, like a mantra. These are trying times. If you have not yet thrown up your hands and exclaimed “uncle,” please consider the following. There are eleven and a half more unscripted, wide-open months in this year. Stretched out before us like a blank canvas, what is to come? The simple answer is “anything.” Rather than focusing on the obvious which, admittedly, appears dire, I invite you to imagine what could be. Is this the year you finally finish that novel? That song? That poem? That painting? Will you finally climb that mountain, literally or proverbially? I invite you to tune out the clamorous din of the present and listen to your inner voice. Allow it to shape your vision of the days to come. Pick up that pen, that brush…It has been said that adversity inspires. If so, surely we are all brimming with inspiration. Perhaps this could be a happy new year.
Jennifer Harlan
Beach Museum of Art
Events Assistant
Image: Charles Leroy Marshall Sr., Happy New Year, 1957, watercolor with graphite on paper, 13 15/16 x 19 15/16 in., gift of Charles L. Marshall, Sr., presented by Maybelle M. Scheetz, 2005.259
