This collaborative multi-canvas acrylic paint pour was inspired and composed as a representation of the seven days of Creation. The smaller canvases represent each of the first six days and the larger center canvas concurrently represents Sabbath and Easter. This composite installation focuses on our joy in hope founded on the redemptive work of Christ’s death and resurrection. Christ’s restorative work is represented by an overall gold sheen on the center canvas and as threads of gold winding their way throughout the other canvases.
The threading gold speaks to the far-reaching, recreative and restorative effects that Christ’s victory carries for His Creation. It also speaks to Christ’s presence and participation in Creation as the Word with God in the beginning. The viewer is meant to have a sense that the restoration of His resurrection flows out through the cosmos and all of time, weaving back into the past and forward into the future both in our lives and in all of Creation.
The color combinations were carefully chosen and utilized to represent God’s creative work in each day and the expanding order out of chaos as Creation progresses. The dynamic interplay of white and red on the center canvas points to the blood of Christ that purifies us. In unique spaces where the white paint has cracked, we can see the red of Christ’s blood as the underlying foundation to our salvation and in some places the gold alluding to the royal inheritance we have in Him.
Read Ashley Kiley’s blog post “Leaning into Fear” about her journey with Betsy Wait and Lindsey Bergsma creating “Restorative Hope” here.
