river of life

I've been working on a new series of assemblage artworks that explore the concept of home - for me, I can't really think about home without thinking of my final home, Heaven. I have these works on display in my studio at the Kennedy Gallery, and sometimes the discussion gets to all that a piece means, but often not, so I wanted to share these works in detail here.

This piece is titled "River of Life" which can have multiple meanings. I live and am from the Sacramento area and we live at the confluence of two major rivers. Indeed, rivers were the reason the town was built here and still are the genesis of our drinking water, the irrigation for the agriculture here and a popular recreation location. My home town wouldn't be what it is without it's rivers.

But of course, the River of Life is also present in heaven, and Christ is referred to as living water - my true home is the reality that my earthly home faintly copies and what is even better, is that heaven will come down to earth and the earth/home God has given us to love & care for will be restored to perfection. I can't begin to accurately express all that in a piece of artwork, but that's the direction I'm heading.