Beauty Comes of All Things - Draft Composition!

I am sharing with you a very first look at a draft digital "sketch" of the composition I am creating for my Arts4MC Grant this year. I am dreaming that this large textile triptych - each panel 4'x4', printed with natural dyes - will grace the walls of one of our local hospitals in a place where patients and their loved ones find themselves on the threshold. I hope this imagery of the life cycle of a sword fern frond, which I see to be as beautiful in its thriving as it is in its furling back inwards, offers comfort and peace. Each panel is inspired by three quotes from survivors of near-death experiences, as noted in the image above.

In the first panel, we see sword fern fronds in their time of robust vitality -- their fronds intermingling, growing towards a beautiful rising sun...

In the second panel, two fronds are gracefully turning inwards in their time of decline, exposing the fertile spores released from the undersides of their curling leaves. Below, we see the phases of the moon with the (new) dark moon phase embracing one of the furled fronds, honoring that death is also a new beginning, and that we are guided by light through the darkness.

The third panel shows new fronds unfurling, with the sun rising again, and an orb surrounding the central fiddlehead to symbolize the eternal existence of the soul. A beautiful rain washes down over the new growth, as the cycle of life spirals outward and begins again.  

The background of these textiles will be a rich, earthy teal color made from pomegranate rind mixed with indigo dye. The suns I will likely print with a dye made from wood-shavings of osage-orange bark. I will also work in some accents with rust and iron water...

I will be meeting with two individuals today from one of our local hospitals to share this piece and explore possibilities for siting. I will also be making 100 2-sided hospice lap blankets with similar imagery, that I will be able to donate thanks to the grant. I am actually in the process of becoming a hospice volunteer, which is something I've always wanted to do, and it will help me to know better how I can use my creativity to help people through. I also aspire to join the Threshold Choir to sing in harmony with a small group at the bedsides of the dying.