The Mustard Seed: Artist’s Statement
Window—Assemblage, Mixed Media and found objects
This “window” entitled The Mustard Seed, uses biblical parables from Matthew 13:18-23.
A painted image of a sower was cut into the shape of a jig-saw puzzle piece and placed next to an embroidered tree with an antique lace applique to form the leaf mass. This represented a mustard tree, and perhaps the Tree of Life, upon which the birds of the air alight. The tree needed solidity, to sink its invisible roots into a foundation of stone. Stones were added at the base of the tree with the addition of a stone-like cross at its root.
To create the cross, I heated silver to a molten stage and impressed it with a wooden cross from Jerusalem, to be a stone of depth and meaning. A small milk glass box—another generation’s discarded rubbish—directed focus to an acrylic pedestal onto which the mustard seed was glued.
Important to the whole was a constructed silver watering can, representing the need for the water of faith in continual growth. This collection of objects was attached to a background of rough raw silk, to express a working way of life with the verse, “faith as small as a mustard seed,” from Matthew 17:20.
The material objects were story-telling images and puzzle pieces that spoke to my heart and I hoped, to the heart and reflection of the viewer.
Claire Brandenburg
The Mustard Seed: $400 + Tax & Shipping. SOLD
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