Anyone who’s stood to inherit a family business knows the difficulty of charting one’s own course. “Legacy is complicated,” says Violet Oliphant-O’Neill, the daughter of the wildly prolific artist Sarah Oliphant. “(When you have) parents who are successful, being their child is complicated.”
Directed by Anna Louise Andersen, “The Promise of Spring” is an intimate portrait of a mother and daughter and the struggle of inheriting a parent’s passion. The film visits Oliphant Studios, which has painted backdrops gracing the covers of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and The New York Times and stood behind icons like Michelle Obama and Simone Biles, to name a few. It’s been in operation since 1978.
Oliphant’s output is revered globally, but for her daughter, stepping into an essential role in the studio isn’t simple. The film follows the pair as they work together and unravels each of their journeys to art-making—Oliphant through a natural proclivity that began in childhood and Oliphant-O’Neill by way of her mother.
As Andersen writes, the film grapples with “the tension between honoring family traditions and creating one’s own destiny.”
Watch “The Promise of Spring of Above,” and find more from the filmmaker on Vimeo.
