Bring Forth the Best Robe

Luke 15:22Hallway

$24.00
Some years are mostly waiting. You leave the hall light on, you keep the door unlocked longer than you need to, and you do not ask where he has been. Above the shoe bench there is a print of two servants hurrying up to a house with a folded robe, and nobody in it has said a word yet. It is the first wall you pass every morning, and it says the door is still open. Friends stand in front of it with their coats half off and ask what is happening at the door, and you get to tell them.

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170 gsm archival matte paper, ships rolled

Perfect for self-framing

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Hallway bible verse wall art Luke 15

The robe is already on its way up the hill

Seen from the far end of the hall, the first thing is movement. Two servants climbing toward the house, one of them carrying something folded over both arms. Lower down, a traveller bent forward, held at the shoulders, not yet upright. The road behind him is narrow. The doorway ahead of him is not.

Nothing in the scene is spelled out. The colours stay low, the figures keep their faces to themselves, and the light gathers in one place near the door. What it gives you is small and steady: a wall that meets you the same way each day, whatever the week has been.

People read it differently. One person watches the robe and says it arrived before any explanation did. Another looks only at the bowed figure and the hands holding him up. A guest who does not go to church sees a house whose door is wider than the road that led to it, and asks what is happening there long before she notices the reference line. It looks like art, and it says what you believe without raising its voice.

From the artist

Everything here is one step from happening

Maren Hale
Maren Hale
Arrivals and still places

I keep going back to the robe. It is folded, it is still in someone else's arms, and it is already halfway up the hill. The light finds it before it finds anyone's face. Below, a figure is bent forward and held, one step from standing. That step has not happened yet, and I like that it has not.

The door is the widest thing in the picture. Wider than the road, wider than it needs to be. I hope whoever hangs it passes it on an ordinary morning, coat in hand, and feels the hallway hold still for a second, then goes out with the sense that something is being prepared while she is away.

Hallway scripture print gift

Two women hang this one by the door

One buys it for her own entry. Her son moved back in the spring, or sat with them in church for the first time in years, and she has asked him nothing about any of it. She wanted something for that wall that was not an engraved family name sign. A wife hanging it in the first house they own thinks it as she taps the nail in: in the name of Jesus Christ, bless this home and protect our family.

The other buys it for a friend. A housewarming, a year of waiting the whole street knew about, and a card that spells none of it out. Her friend has said more than once that she truly does not want stuff, that she has everything she needs. This is not stuff. It is one wall, answered.

It hangs centred above the shoe bench inside the front door, the middle piece of a three-piece entry wall, and 45x60 cm framed is the size that holds that spot.

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Bible verse wall art

What comes out of the tube or the box

  • 170 gsm matte uncoated paper Print only, inked to the edges of the sheet. Matte, so no shine under a hallway light.
  • 12 mm black wood frame Flat square profile, 22 mm deep, matte finish, plexiglass front, no mat, on 170 gsm coated silk paper.
  • Three sizes 30x40 cm, 45x60 cm and 60x80 cm. The middle one is the size that sits above a bench.
Coming home

What people ask before it goes up

1.What verse is good for an entryway wall?
Luke 15:20-22 suits an entry better than most, because it happens at a door. The father sees him a long way off, runs, and calls for the best robe before anything is explained. Hung where people come in and go out, it belongs to the moment it describes.
2.What does the father running in the prodigal son story mean?
The text says only that he ran while his son was still far off, and that the robe was called for before a word of explanation. Readers hear different things in that running. Some hear the speed of it, some hear the robe arriving first. This piece keeps both readings open and leaves the answer to you.
3.What should I hang above a hallway bench instead of a mirror?
A single scene works better than a mirror in a narrow hall, because it gives the eye somewhere to go rather than back to itself. Centre one piece above the bench, roughly the width of the seat below it. The 45x60 cm framed size fits a standard bench, with 60x80 cm for a wide wall.
4.Will it look like a religious sign to guests who do not share our faith?
No. The figures have no faces and nothing is written across the image, so a guest sees two people at a door and a reconciliation, and usually asks about it. The reference line is small and sits below the scene. To a believer it is scripture, to everyone else it is art, and you answer in your own words.
Scripture print gift

The wall by the door is waiting for it

Framed or print only, in three sizes, for the spot above the bench where coats come off.

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