Wisdom is a Tree of Life

My quilt top: "Wisdom is a Tree of Life"

The Tree of Life symbolizes providence, nurture, beginning, and possibility. It is a home for birds, insects, and other animals. It provides oxygen and shade, healing, fuel and food. Through cycles of loss and new birth, budding and flowering, the tree witnesses to changing seasons and embodies the rhythms of created life. In houses of worship, the menorah and other traditional candelabra are stylized trees of life, linking the tree with light and flame and mapping our sacred spaces around this pulsing heart. In the book of Proverbs, a sage declares that "Wisdom is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; happy are those who hold her fast. By Wisdom YHWH founded the earth, by understanding established the heavens" (Prov 3:18-19).

Inspiration: Ann Brauer's beautiful quilt Rainbows of the Dawn 45" x 45"

My meditation on this passage inspired a quilt entitled Wisdom is a Tree of Life (above). I wanted the quilt to incorporate all the colors in the Ives color wheel in order to convey that Wisdom emerges from every life stage, every person and place, every walk of life. Inspired by the beautiful quilts of Ann Brauer (featured at right), I designed the quilt background with twelve rows of string pieced blocks (eight blocks per row), each row incorporating strings drawn from two adjacent colors on the color wheel. As I moved around the wheel, I incorporated leftover strings into adjacent rows to soften the vertical transitions and allow the colors to blend into each other.

Against the string-pieced background, I envisioned a silhouetted tree in black. Inspiration for the tree silhouette came from a cross stitch pattern by Bellastitchery. I was enchanted by the tree's strong curvature and charmed by each individual leaf. I cut the trunk and branches freehand with a rotary cutter, and appliqued these onto the pieced background using a decorative blanket stitch and dark thread. At this point, my husband declared the tree to be "pointy", "creepy," and "scary", which was definitely not the effect I was going for. I nixed the original idea to add leaves in black, and designed the leaves in a spectrum of colors complementary to the background blocks. I cut leaves freehand (with scissors) from scraps that were trimmed from the string-pieced background blocks, then turned to other fabric scraps when these were used up. I satin-stitched the leaves to the twigs and branches, using coordinating embroidery thread. To my eye, the colors of the leaves captured many seasons, from the first bright buds of spring to the deep greens of summer and the earthy tones of autumn. I tried to capture the latter with scattered leaves falling to the ground. 

Wisdom is a Tree of Life sunlit quilt top

The picture at the top of this post was taken at night, with the quilt top hanging in the window of my dining room. By day, the morning light shone through the quilt top, creating a beautiful stained-glass-window effect. The sharpened silhouette reveals the tree as Woman Wisdom. The curves of the tree are the curves of her hips and breasts. Her arms extend to the heavens and embrace creation's goodness.

I would have loved for the finished quilt to have retained this stained-glass effect and the accentuated figure of Woman Wisdom. If anyone has experimented with gauzy backings or some kind of transparent batting that makes this possible, I would love to hear about it!

Detail of portrait by Debbie Corina, Art from the Heart Portraits 

Thanks to the generosity of friend and artist Debbie Corina, this quilt now has a wonderful home in the sanctuary of Hillsborough United Church of Christ in Hillsborough, NC, and was first displayed on Easter Sunday. Debbie is the artist behind Art from the Heart Portraits, creating stunning and heart-warming true-to-life portraits in graphite, colored pencil, and soft-pastels of cherished animal companions. Above is a detail of one of Debbie's Art from the Heart custom portraits (psst! commission yours today!). Below is a picture of Debbie in the midst of the congregation at HUCC - she's the striking woman in the center foreground with the fierce spiked hair:

Here, finally, is a picture of Wisdom is a Tree of Life in its new home, where it echoes the shape and symbolism of the cross, the candles, and the lily:

The quilt could not have found a more fitting home, and I am so grateful to Debbie for her support of me as an artist and her vision of where it belonged. Who has supported you in your art? Whose vision has helped your work reach into spaces, sacred and secular, that you could not have imagined or accomplished on your own?