Hare

The enigmatic hare has followed me around this year. One of the few things I first brought to Bristol was the painting of a hare by Albrecht Dürer, which I found behind a cupboard back home. It cut an evocative figure: eyes half closed, sat not quite resting but definitely content. It hung in my room and made me feel calm. It was always visible in the background of my zoom video in online lectures. I began seeing hares everywhere: in art, in music, in mythology. I dressed up as a hare, crafting huge water-coloured ears that I sculpted from paper. The hare felt like a comfort in a year that was full of uncertainty and yet personal growth. The hare possesses that quality that all wild animals have that demands respect and perhaps awe. My wonderful coursemate Ben designed and drew it, and so the hare on my calf will always remind me of his presence (not to mention artistic skill!) and of my other coursemates who watched on as he did it! I feel lucky to have a reminder of the year and of those people right there on my calf when I look down.