Hope Completed

I shared the beginning of this project here.

This piece had its origins in a conversation with some dear friends about where we all were in our lives at that point.
We were in places where what we could see was the dry, dying hardness of the current season of our lives. We had to trust and hope that the spring was coming. The image of a tree in the midst of changing seasons came to represent this place.
There is all sorts of symbolism about trees in Scripture. Ps 1:3 has special significance to us because of the meaning of our name, there are multiple references to a tree of life, culminating in Revelation, the crucifixion on a "tree," etc. I also wanted to show the link between what we see (the withering) and what is true, spiritual reality as well.

People say, with some justification, that the measure of modern art is really how impressive a blurb the artist can write about it. At the risk of receiving that criticism myself, these were my intentions in this design.

The tree is cup shaped, alluding to the cup of communion with Christ and his body. The red threads underlining the tree branches remind of the blood of Christ's sacrifice for us (on the tree) and the reason for hope. The flame-colored threads reference the work of the Holy Spirit in revealing the hope that we have in God and the way that he is working despite the apparent death.
I worked the withered and falling leaves first and then added the different shades of green. I had originally intended to make only a few green leaves and those not actually touching the branches in the way that the dead ones did to show that hope was far off and only hinted at. However, as I worked on it over the course of the last year, the emphasis shifted to call for more of the green as our personal seasons changed. God has brought us better marriages, children, friends and work in ways that we were not able to see at the time of our original conversation. It no longer seemed possible to put so much emphasis on the hard season in the way that the design started.
However, though we are experiencing a spring just now, there will be another winter when we will need to be reminded of hope.

For now, I hope that this piece will be a blessing as it goes on its way with its recipients to their new home.