I Saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem

Pine, polychrome, 20” x 20”

This piece is a reflection on Revelation, Chapter 21. I refer you to reflect on this piece in conjunction with reading that chapter, and I would also encourage you to listen to John Rutter’s Visions on YouTube (especially the Finale), which provided inspiration as I was working on this.

I will let Revelation explain the symbolism here, except to comment on the knotwork in the middle. This represents temporal human experience - historical, societal, and individual. (I believe the trajectory of individual lives replicate the trajectories of society and history.) My take on Revelation is that it is not so much predictions of future world events as it is an exposition of the cosmic struggle our temporal existence is embedded in, and of which we are vaguely aware. At the same time, I see Revelation as the story of individuals struggling and yearning for spiritual wholeness.

With this in mind, the knotwork in this piece represents the cycles of existence, sometime bending inward towards the presence of God, sometimes spinning off into distance awareness of things spiritual. But with God as the centre, there is a beauty and wholeness to our individual and corporate struggles, struggles that take place within the eschatology expounded in Revelation.