This work is a polyptych: a painting which is divided into four or more sections, becoming one piece.  Polyptychs were common in the Renaissance, often designed as altarpieces. This eight-piece work, though not created for an altar, is book-ended and brushed all the way through with gold leaf, which in medieval society represented “the brush of the light of God.”1  The gold leaf acts as a continuous thread, making God first, and center and last in this narrative account of creation. 2,3

Though I could have designed this piece with complexity and added numerous elements, I purposely chose the perspective that pulls away from details and simplifies forms.  It comments on the rhythm and progression of order from inky formlessness to the expanses of light, sky, ocean and earth.

After moving through these expanses, I settle on the earth—the mud from which God created the living beings that fill up earth. I have a new appreciation that my creativity is a gift given to me because of God’s work in the dirt. I mirror Him as a sub-creator, using what He created, to make new works with my hands and to value the fact that I was created to enjoy this work.

On the seventh and final day there was a declaration of rest (Shabath), a day set apart as Holy. All the work was finished and it was very good!  This day set a standard for us to practice a rhythm of work and rest to this day.  In my own personal experience, I found it hard to keep that rhythm while I was creating this piece. In fact, I started out in chaos, hardly knowing where to begin.  I had not done a series that stood beside one another as one piece.  It felt limiting.  It was always on my mind, even when I slept.  I was frustrated when something would interfere with my studio time.  It was not happening fast enough. But order came, as ideas changed and when it was finished, I rested externally and internally, the way a Sabbath should be experienced in the balance of time.

I join artists from ages past, who have translated the narrative of creation into many forms, highlighting patterns, dimensions and the familiar.  These objects remain after we’re gone, hopefully not to measure us, but to honor the Giver and to leave a work that brings thought and pleasure to others. Take another look at your surrounding world: the light, sky, ocean and earth and all that is in them.

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Watercolor on stretched paper with gold leaf
6-18” x 10” and 2-18´x18”
1 Gilding on Illuminated Manuscripts Based Upon Contemporary and Historical Methods”, Angela Lucas, P.1, Natural Pigments Newsletter, www.naturalpigments.com 
2 Genesis 1:1-2:2, NIV
3 Isaiah 45:18