As Artist in Residence at Boise First Congregational, United Church of Christ, I create art for Holy Week, the observance of events in Jesus’ life, including Palm Sunday and Good Friday, culminating in Easter.
This year I invited another artist in the church, Emily Blosser, to create an offering. It was a good decision. More on this soon…
Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, is the observance of Jesus arriving in Jerusalem to adoring crowds who lay their cloaks on the ground in his path and wave palm branches. This year, I created Palm Sunday Arrival as a large woodblock print and painting.
Palm Sunday Arrival (2024): 27″x23.5″ Woodblock print and painting
In Palm Sunday Arrival, the Jesus figure entering Jerusalem, side saddled on a young donkey, is left intentionally ambiguous for my interpretation of this painting. What if you or I were so adamant about spreading the words of Love that we risked dangers as Jesus had? What if we were the figure on the donkey, riding into town to “Hosanna! Blessed is thee”? For Jesus, the crowd waves palm leaves ecstatically in glory to their beloved savior. Christ the King, not on a war horse like a conqueror, but on a lowly donkey, vulnerable and humble.
But see the anger behind the blue sky? The treacherous ground? We know it. Ill fate. The colors forebode something wrenching about to happen to Jesus. The dangers and evils gathering that Jesus is to face are symbolic of what sacrifices and opposition we might face if we spoke truth to power so bravely.
Jesus weeps. He has a heavy heart for the sins of God’s people as he enters the beloved city. But God’s message communicated by Jesus’ life is that Love, deep in the human hearts of his followers as they cheer him, and even deep in the human hearts of his enemies, will win.
The following Friday before Easter is Good Friday, an observance of Christ’s betrayal, denial, abuse, and crucifixion.
Here’s a shot of the artist Emily Blosser wood burning her Good Friday piece Crucifixion.
Emily Blosser
Emily created her work Crucifixion for Good Friday. Here is an in-progress photo of her work.
Crucifixion (2024): Woodburning and wood stain on kiln-dried walnut
Here’s Emily’s Artist Statement about her work:
If Palm Sunday is to emphasize Christ the King, and the resurrection is for Christ the Divine, then the crucifixion is the time to recognize Christ the Man. For Jesus was, indeed, a human, and nothing is so mortal as death. I am personally drawn to passages that showcase Christ’s humanity, and few do it so well as the incident of the cursed fig tree.
The story (as told in Mark) is one of the most confusing and contested stories of Jesus: Jesus, in the few days before his death, was heading back to the city for the night after a day of preaching and healing. Tired, dusty, and hungry, Jesus sees a fig tree along the road: how fortunate! However, upon closer inspection, he finds that it bears no figs, despite being covered in leaves. In frustration, Jesus calls upon God’s power to curse the tree “so that it may never bear fruit again.” The next day, the disciples see the same tree dead and withered; Jesus’ “prayer”–spoken in anger–had been heeded. How human, to ask for that which is actually the opposite of what we need.
When I read this in the wider context of Holy Week, I see a man with foreknowledge of his own death, frustrated by all the things that he has yet to accomplish, frustrated by the ignorance of his disciples, frustrated by the state of Israel, trying to squeeze as much ministry, teaching, and experience into his last few days on Earth. I see Jesus, the man.
The Bible, as a narrative, is not particularly concerned with noting Jesus’ feelings, but Jesus the sinless is not Jesus the emotionless. It would be hard, I think, to live 33 years of ministry knowing there’s a cross waiting at the end. We see Jesus sad, frustrated, angry, sarcastic, and cheerful at different points in his life, and the week leading up to his death feels understandably volatile, frantic, and aggrieved. Mark 38-39 tells us the culmination of these very human emotions: “38 Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’ 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’”
The fig and its tree are pervasive and diversely used symbols. They’re natural symbols for the bounty of the earth, agriculture, fertility, and prosperity. They’re held sacred by Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians. The fig leaf can also symbolize shame, and Jesus compared the corruption of Israel to “a fig tree that bears no fruit.” It is from this last example that I derive another meaning for the fig: purpose.
To extend the metaphor: a withered branch bearing its last fruit serves its purpose better than a fruitless branch in full leaf.
It is easy to get wrapped up in the cruelty of crucifixion. It was, indeed, a horrible reality, and a history that’s a necessity to learn. But, I try not to focus so much on the gnarled branch that I miss its fruit: a fulfillment of God’s will and Christ’s purpose.
Jesus was human, like you and I, and while his story is an extreme example, we retell it as a reminder what divine peace humans can hold within them when guided by selfless purpose.
Emily Blosser
Following the observance of Christ’s crucifixion, his body is entombed behind a large boulder and there is deep mourning of Jesus’ people. The tomb is approached by mourning women on Easter morning. They arrive and they are shocked to find the stone of the tomb rolled away and the tomb empty!
My own work Easter Morning is an abstract painting of Christ the Divine who has shockingly risen from the dead!
Easter Morning (2020): 22.5″x17.5″ Carved, burnt, and collaged basswood
The wood of this carved painting has been destroyed by carving and burning and layers of collage. In my interpretation, this is like Jesus’ crucified body.
What?! Christ is risen! Holy God! Look at the colors! They’re ecstatic! Like a body of water that has joy bursting from its banks! New life happening and new beginnings for all God’s people! The grave of our sorrows, sins, and fears is empty and we are reborn!
God’s ever-springing Love is eternal. Alleluia! Happy Easter!
This year, for me the story of Jesus’ life, from the depths of human spirit and pain, meaninglessness and death, transformed to the brilliance of spirit, purpose for life, forgiveness, hope, peace, joy, and love, has the message that wherever we are in these experiences, we are not alone. Other people, some with Jesus’ face, are present. God is present. And They are with us as we continue to grow, change, create, and live in new directions of Love of which we have never dreamt.
The Holy Week show with these pieces will be up for the Easter season starting on Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024 at Boise First Congregational Church, UCC located at 2201 Woodlawn Ave, Boise, ID 83702.
In addition to the Holy Week show, five of my works, including two of my fresh carved paintings, one of which is the following, will be a part of the March and April show, beginning on March 9, 2024 at the Riverside Hotel, located at 2900 W Chinden Blvd, Garden City, ID 83714.
Bright Flicker at Dawn
Bright Flicker at Dawn is a new carved painting on African mahogany. The intentions are similarly about hope rising from out of the darkness of spirit. A triumph of the spirit over despair, anger, sin, fear, and meaninglessness with the dawn bringing wholeness and healing and purpose.
See my Featured Art on my website, and as always…
Thanks for supporting the arts!
Gretchen Weitemier