Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A new creation





OK, now ya'll, don't pass out... but I actually have art to post! LOL! In my women's Bible study class over the past few weeks, I have been working on something. We did meditation on a couple of verses as well as the song "Have Thine Own Way, Lord". We did Lectio Divina as our exercise and the phrase that God brought to my mind in this song was "While I am waiting, yeilded and still". Out of that, I decided I wanted to create a figure out of clay. I've never worked with clay and while it was more challenging than I'd expected, I enjoyed working with it. I struggled in the early stages because I kept trying to make a complete body. I felt like I was fighting something that wasn't meant to happen. So, I stopped fighting and decided my figure would be incomplete. At first, my thoughts were on how I feel when I'm waiting... like I'm wasting away. Yet, as I continued to work on it, it began taking on a deeper meaning for me. It wasn't so much about the wasting away as it was the process of gaining something. Not the dying, but the growing. This figure is incomplete and in process just as I am. I intentionally did not want this figure to look "refined". I wanted it to have a rough appearance as a reminder that this is how I am. But, if I can yeild myself to God, waiting on Him and his timing, he will continue to shape my character weaving more and more of Himself into me.

The figure is actually still drying but I don't think I'm going to paint it. I like it porcelain. I will seal it though. I embedded a vintage watch face into the face of this woman to represent the time of waiting.

I then wove a brightly colored "mat" to go underneath her. I don't know yet if I have the complete significance of it having to be there other than it reminds me of how God takes all the bits and pieces of life circumstances and weaves them into something beautiful. Having the woman's figure sitting on it symbolizes putting trust in that truth... a foundation upon which we can more fully learn to "wait" on Him, yielded and still.

2 comments:

Joanne Huffman said...

Angie, I particularly like your explanation of this piece. I think this is truly a description of what a gift art is in our lives.

Joanne

Nicole T said...

this piece is beautiful. I agree I like the original clay color of it, almost "raw".