church retreat art mural

Tree Mural: ‘Planted by Rivers of Water’

This was a project I did with a church on a community retreat weekend in Newcastle, Co. Down. The group had taken the theme for the weekend from the Bible verse in Psalm 1 which speaks of a person being like a ‘tree, planted by rivers of water’. I interpret this metaphor as an image of ‘rooted-ness’ , of understanding one’s source and one’s dependance on God for life and sustenance. This project was designed to allow participants to interact in a personal way with the metaphor by making their own leaves for the tree and by creating ‘ribbons’ of water for the river inscribed with text that they had found sustaining in their own life.

Christian church retreat group art project tree mural 1 Christian church retreat group art project tree mural 2 Christian church retreat group art project tree mural

As this was an inter-generational project, the art materials were chosen to be accessible to any age. Participants approached the art table and created their own elements to be incorporated into the mural at the end of the weekend retreat.

Christian church retreat group art project tree mural 4 Christian church retreat group art project tree mural 5 Christian church retreat group art project tree mural 6

In preparation for the weekend I painted a background on three panels as a tryptic. After the weekend retreat concluded I gathered the elements and assembled the mural at home adding texture to the tree trunk and weaving fine threads of shiny card and sparkly glue through the river to create a sense of motion. The tryptic was then mounted on board and open framed so that the elements could still be touched.

Christian church retreat group art project tree mural Christian church retreat group art project tree mural 8 Christian church retreat group art project tree mural

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