Sunday, March 12, 2017

Station 4. Jesus Meets His Mother



This piece is a quilt composed of cotton fabric, appliqued and machine quilted. Embroidery with perl cotton thread was used to create the facial features, as well as to emphasize key components. The two figures overlap and yet are intended to be viewed as distinct characters. 



Developing this piece caused me to wonder what this period must have meant for Mary. Was this to be her last meeting with her beloved child? Perhaps she was remembering her little boy - a toddler, later a teen-ager, and even a young adult prior to beginning his mission. Was she thinking about the horrible death he would experience?Or was she thinking about him as Son of Man? Son of God?



As I considered this important encounter, and my desire to illustrate it, I struggled. I nearly completed it three times before I felt it captured my vision of the moment. In the piece, they share physical features as well as emotion. There is a single tear. Who is crying? Is it Mary? Jesus? Both of them? My own son is struggling at this time and I find myself feeling the pain with him and for him.  In the end, I realized that the process and my struggle were prayers for Mary, for Jesus, for me and for my son.














John 19:

25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his motherthere, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman,[b] here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

8 comments:

  1. wow.
    That is a profound piece; thank you for sharing it and the process.

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  2. Yes, thanks for sharing your process and sketches, Martha. It is a very deep topic, and I think Mary's enduring power has a lot to do, as you say, with the pain we feel as mothers when our children struggle. Beautiful piece.

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  3. Bless you for sharing this work, along with its personal meaning.

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  4. Beautiful piece, prayers for you and your son...

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  5. Wow. That is very moving and also a beautiful piece of art.
    May you and your son be strengthened by this time and come out the other side. I don't know your situation but we came through a time that seemed to have few good options for the future. Keep hoping and hang in there.

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  6. Utterly lovely. Profound. I hold you and your son in my heart and will pray that his struggle eases and soon ends. Thank you deeply for sharing this.

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