An Olive Leaf in Her Mouth
Genesis 8:11Nursery
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170 gsm archival matte paper, ships rolled
Perfect for self-framing
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The water went down while you were still bracing
From the door you see the water first, a flat grey sheet holding still, and then the dark shoulder of land above it where the light has settled. The bird is small, almost out of the frame, one pale mark carrying something green. Nothing in the picture tells you what happens next.
Hung on the wall it steadies the room. When the nights are long and the worry comes up the way it does, it is a quiet place for the eyes to go, and it keeps saying, without a word, that the level has stopped rising.
One friend looks at it and sees the hill that came back out of the water. Another sees only the bird, coming home at evening because there was somewhere to come home to. Your mother-in-law stands a while and says what she sees is the last of the flood lying in a hollow, going down. Nobody has to agree, and the room is better for having something in it worth standing in front of.
The light has already gone over to the hill
I keep going back to the water. It lies so flat you could believe it had never moved, and the light has already left it and gathered on the hill, on the one wet ridge just given back. The bird is barely there, a pale mark against the grey, low, still flying, not yet arrived.
What I hope, for whoever hangs this above a sleeping child, is that the room holds the evening the way this water holds it: level, unhurried, done with rising. On the nights when the house feels dark and small, I think the eye goes to the hill first, and stays there a moment.
Two people wrap this one
One of them buys it for herself. She waited many years and prayed a lot of tearful prayers to be a mother, and now she is in the third trimester with a paint tin, a low dresser and a wall that is still bare. Decorating this room is partly for her, and she knows it.
The other is a grandmother who does not want to add to the pile of soft toys. She has heard the mother say she has everything she needs and no space for more, so she brings something framed to the dedication instead, something the child will still have at twenty.
It hangs above the low dresser at standing eye level, the centre panel of a three-print wall in the 60x80 cm framed size, and it moves into the toddler room later without looking like it was left behind.
What comes out of the tube or the box
- 170 gsm matte paper Print only is an unframed sheet of uncoated paper, printed to its edges, no shine under a nursery lamp.
- 12 mm black wood frame Flat square profile, 12 mm wide and 22 mm deep, matte finish, plexiglass front, no mat, on 170 gsm coated silk paper.
- Three sizes 30x40, 45x60 and 60x80 cm, which is 12x16, 18x24 and 24x32 in. The largest holds the wall above a low dresser.
- Giclee print The water stays grey and the hill stays warm, with the print running to the inner edge of the frame.
Questions people ask about this one
1.What does the olive leaf mean in Genesis 8:11?
2.Is Genesis 8 wall art suitable for a nursery that grows up?
3.What size print works above a nursery dresser?
4.What do you write in a card for a baby dedication gift?
The room can hold the end of the waiting
Framed or as a sheet, in three sizes, with a hill that stays above the water long after the cot has left the room.
