Here is my newest piece, which is inspired by the beauty of creation. My favorite thing about the Biblical story of creation is how the Creator is so pleased with their work, and declares it good, good, and very good. This resonates with me on several levels. As someone who dwells within that creation, I am constantly smitten with how Good it is. And as a creator, made in the image of the divine creator, I think it’s important to remember just how Good it is that we can bring forth wonderful things to share with each other.
So this piece is my attempt to celebrate the light and the darkness, and the waters and the dry land, and the herbs and trees, and the waters bringing forth creatures, and the birds that fly above the earth, and all living creatures and creeping things and beasts of the earth, right up to people. And behold, it is very good.
In designing this piece, I started with the idea of the curl of a wave echoing the curl of a fern fiddlehead, which I have a Thing about, and I moved on from there. The next idea was to have the butterflies and dragonflies transforming from the wave’s spray, which was inspired by this piece by Hokusai. I had fun carving this with a pretty fine level of detail, trying to get variations in the water of the wave, well-detailed fern fronds, and interesting texture on the tree, for example. A couple of other touches hidden in here: plankton-ish things in the water toward the top of the center of the wave, and Orion in the pattern of stars at the lower left. Presumably I should have made the bright side of the moon toward the sun, but you know, that's artistic license. The humans are the weakest part of the design, but then, perhaps that’s true of the real creation, too, right?
I’m late for Earth Day with this, but of course this just goes to show that we should be celebrating every day - by taking care of this Good world of which we are a part.
[Picture: Behold, it is Good, rubber block print by AEGN, 2021;
Sketch and carving of Behold, it is Good, by AEGN, 2021.]
6 comments:
Thanks for this print. I love it! And thanks, too, for your explanation of how and why it came about. Yes! Creation is good, in all its amazing variety and inter-relatedness. Let's celebrate and cherish it while we still can -- and do whatever we can to enable it to survive in its diversity and wonder.
I'm glad I stopped by and now see your newest creation. Beautiful! You know of course it looks a *lot* like a tai qi (yin/yang) symbol. Perfectly in balance.
Thanks for coming by!
Jade, yes, the yin/yang spiral look is there, but I think of this as more wholistic, rather than everything having to be divided into opposites.
You're welcome :)
You probably already know this but when the yin/yang spins, as it is designed to, everything is a wholistic grey...
Actually, I hadn't really heard it put that way before, Jade. I like it! Thanks.
What a pleasure it is to visit your blog. Looking at your piece inspired by the creation of the world was just what I needed this morning.
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