The first and third of these pieces will be featured in an upcoming exhibition, “Beyond the Blues,” which opens on February 10, 2024 from 1-3 pm at the Columbia Art Center. You can find more details here.
Reflections on this Series
Ringing in the new year with some finished pieces. They’re not perfect, but after 4+ months of work, I’m calling these double exposure portraits done.
In the meantime, I wanted to reflect on the process and meaning behind these pieces in this blog post. I will discuss the embroidery process, the theme of healing, and the water and mountain elements in the paintings.
Embroidery Process: Learning to Wait
It feels like it’s taken so long to finish an embroidered watercolor. With acrylic, I could complete a large-scale painting in a week, but these 11”×14” watercolors took much longer.
These pieces were my testing ground, which is why they took a while. I was trying to figure out how to incorporate embroidery into a watercolor painting, and vice versa. I still haven’t fully figured it out yet.
But looking back, I have learned a lot in this new, slow process. I didn’t always feel productive or like I was getting anywhere with a few stitches per session. In the end, little by little, the stitches overlapped and wove together into a more finished piece.
As slow as embroidery is, and at times frustrating (I can’t say how much extra time I spent threading needles), it embodies the theme that inspired me to try it in the first place. That is, the theme of “healing,” which in Hebrew is Rapha, רָפָא, literally, “to mend by stitching.”
Healing Process: Similarities to Sewing
Healing, like embroidery, can be an incredibly slow process. Oftentimes, you take a small step, but it doesn’t feel like it makes a difference. You still see and feel the scars, and they sting. Other times, you catch a glimpse of the progress until you encounter a setback.
In sewing, if the thread tangles or knots while you’re stitching, you have to undo the whole strand and start that stitch again. In life, when something that you’ve been working through triggers your anxiety again, it feels like you’re back at the beginning.
But even in this stop-and-go, one-step-forward, one-step-back process, mending is happening.
Personal Healing Experience
In my personal healing process, in the brokenness, the tangled knots, the setbacks, I have been reminded that God is working, and He is faithful. Most of the time, I can’t see it in the moment, hence why the eyes are obscured in some of these portraits. As the Apostle Paul said, “we walk by faith not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
The comforting thing isn’t how well I walk by faith, because I definitely waver and stumble and have my moments of doubt and unbelief. But thank God that He is stronger than the deepest fears of my heart, and that His grace is sufficient for me and His power made perfect in my weakness.
My faith is anchored not to myself but to Another, who is always good, loving and true even in my darkest moments. Jesus Christ is my precious cornerstone for a sure foundation and the Author and Perfector of my faith. No matter how low I feel at times, He does not change. His promises are still true.
Water Elements: Imagery from Isaiah
Many of the promises that encourage me the most come from the book of Isaiah. In poetic language, the prophet uses natural imagery to describe how God will restore and redeem His sinful people, who are in exile. The imagery in these promises inspired the water elements in my embroidered paintings. Water takes on a meaning of God’s spiritual healing and restoration.
“Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.” (Isaiah 35:6)
“I will make rivers flow on barren heights and springs within the valleys.” (Isaiah 41:18)
Looking at a barren desert landscape, it would be hard to imagine seeing any water, let alone water gushing forth. This would be impossible. Yet that is what God promises to His people amidst their spiritual desolation. Not because of anything they deserve, or anything they do, but because of who He is and what He will do.
By His Wounds We Are Healed
What He will do is expressed further in Isaiah 53, a prophetic description of Jesus and His death on the cross.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53: 5-6)
Did you catch the mention of healing? “By His wounds we are healed.” This is the healing and restoration that God promised to bring to sinners through His Son, who would die on the cross for their sins.
Mountain Elements: God’s Unchanging Promises
Following Isaiah 53, comes a beautiful passage of God’s redemption of His people. Israel, pictured as a barren widow, can sing for joy because of her Savior’s atoning sacrifice.
This chapter (54) is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture, as it speaks so personally to my own heart. Despite Israel’s broken and sinful past, God reassures and calms her fears, declaring that He is her husband and Redeemer.
““Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.
Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth
and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
For your Maker is your husband—
the Lord Almighty is his name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
He is called the God of all the earth.”
He promises to bring her back to Himself with “deep compassion,” and no longer deal with her in anger. This crescendos into such an amazing promise:
“To me this is like the days of Noah,
when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.
So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,
never to rebuke you again.
Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”
This passage partly inspired my use of mountains in these paintings. The mountains are so lofty, strong and unmovable, yet even if they could be shaken, God promises that in Christ, His unfailing love and His covenant of peace will not be.
Christ has fully atoned for my sin on the cross and secured my eternal salvation by His blood. This promise rests on His finished work, not anything I do. The firmness of the mountains remind me of the strength and stability of God and the sureness of His promises no matter what I feel.
Final Thoughts
Moving forward, I’m not sure how the rest of this series will go, but I am thankful that God has brought me to this point, and what He has taught me through the process.
Charlotte Mann Lee Art 