The work’s title, Printemps, translates from French as ‘spring’, with roots in the Latin primum tempus, or ‘first time.’ Tracing this linguistic thread back to antiquity, Welch’s Printemps can be located in the tradition of Greco-Roman history and myth. Read through this lens, the central figure of Printemps could be understood as Persephone, the goddess of spring. According to one telling of the myth, Persephone was abducted by Hades while distracted by the beauty of a Narcissus flower sprung from the Underworld. Persephone’s mother Demeter, who loved her daughter dearly, was so devastated by the abduction that she abandoned her duties as the goddess of fertility and agriculture. This threw the world into peril as life began to decay, plunging Earth into its first fall and winter. After months of hardship as Demeter continued fruitlessly to search for her daughter, Zeus intervened to put an end to humankind’s hardship and mandated Persephone be allowed to return from the Underworld. To strike a balance between Hades and Demeter, Zeus mandated that Persephone split her time between the two— six months with her mother, yielding the seasons of spring and summer, and six months with her husband in the Underworld, resulting in the seasons of fall and winter during Persephone’s separation from Demeter. After the despair of being without her daughter for half of the year, every year upon Persephone’s return, Demeter is elated once more, and the Earth again bursts with life in a new spring.

Welch's Persephone is depicted in the throes of spring admiring a lush bed of flowers. The wealth of floral growth springing from the ground and the bright blue sky above suggests the season is in full bloom, celebrating the reunion between Persephone and Demeter. The loving bond between mother and daughter is amplified by the heart the central figure bears on her chest, similar to the Sacred Heart featured in renderings of the Virgin Mary throughout art history. This different reading from another tradition coexists, rather than conflicts, with Welch’s mythological narrative, overlapping them and imbuing the central figure with yet a new quality, that of sacrifice or purity. In this way, the symbols and imagery Welch employs in his compositions are fluid, mutable in origin and temporality.

In line with Welch’s interest in nonlinear temporality, the flowers, shown in silhouette, open the work to alternative interpretations. Across his practice, Welch investigates the idea that time unfolds in a nonlinear manner, giving way to multiple—and sometimes contradictory—phenomenon occurring at once. Here, the solid, black stone flowers that emerge from the ground could suggest another timeline at play. Bending downwards, this could be the very moment Persephone gives into the temptation of Narcissus’s flower, becoming vulnerable to Hades’ tricks, and initiating the transition from summer to fall. Yet the vibrance of the colorful palette serves as a comforting reminder that, whatever fate awaits her, like clockwork, spring and hope will come again.