Uptown Entrance – 41st Street/7th Avenue mezzanine, Times Square Subway Station, New York, New York

The pair of mosaics "The Return of Spring" and "The Onset of Winter" depict various New York City street scenes were created as paintings and subsequently translated to mosaics by Artistic Mosaics Travisanutto of Italy. The artist, Jack Beal, uses classical mythology to comment on the relationship between what is above and below the surface – an apt metaphor for the subway. "The Return of Spring" panel depicts construction workers and other city dwellers in front of a rendering of an original IRT subway kiosk.

Beal intended the to illustrate the mythological character Persephone. Instead of fasting, she ate a pomegranate and as punishment, is banished underground for six months of the year. However, she is permitted to spend six months above ground on earth with her mother. In mythology, the periods above and below ground were the beginning of seasons, which Beal uses in his titles. Beal finds universality in the myth and brings it to life in a place filled with movement and purpose, bringing beauty underground.

The murals are installed in the 41st Street/7th Avenue mezzanine of the Times Square subway station. Times Square – 42nd Street is a large station complex of the New York City Subway, located under Times Square at the intersection of 42nd Street, Seventh Avenue, and Broadway in Midtown Manhattan. When considered together with 42nd Street – Port Authority Bus Terminal, it is the busiest complex in the system, serving 58,422,597 passengers in 2010. The complex provides free transfers between the IRT 42nd Street Shuttle, the BMT Broadway Line, the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line and the IRT Flushing Line, with a long transfer to the IND Eighth Avenue Line one block west at 42nd Street – Port Authority Bus Terminal. It is served by the 1, 2, 3, 7, N, R, Q, and 42nd Street Shuttle trains.