Fruit Of The Spirit

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23

Patience: Pomegranate, also known as Granada

It not only takes patience to eat a pomegranate, but the fruit takes five to seven months to mature after bloom. Layering the seed, then the pod, then the bloom in paint and glaze creates a depth that shows the long patient progression, but also the red of the bloom sparks bright red, a color that depicts quick action against a calm soothing blue. Look closely, for the layering, and sanding effect resulted in the appearance of a cross, for there was ultimate patience in that gift.

Goodness: Durian

Trees that produce the durian fruit appear to be capable of living indefinitely, for centuries. If an older tree dies, it is only due to damage, disease or humans, not old age. The fruit quality increases with age…like goodness that grows with maturity and when doled from a pure mature heart is truly a gift. This fruit was also the first ancient plant to depend on others for dispersal of its seeds…so deliver the gift as well. The sheet music of “a Good Ole Summertime” collages in a tongue-in-cheek reminder, while the blossoms of the durian fruit jump off the background, growing in distinctness and color as they approach, as though sharpening in focus as they grow.

Love: Cherimoya…Called the “Love fruit” due to the heart shape

Pages from a French romance novel are collaged in with a complex stormy background filled with warm tones. These create a passionate color scheme similar to sunset, the most romantic time of day. Yet the love spoken of is not a romantic love, but one filled with compassion, thus the contrast of the cool greens and forefront placement of the subject.

Faithfulness: Breadfruit

This is a tropical staple, the equivalent of the faithful potato. It also is one of the highest-yielding food plants, producing up to over 200 grapefruit-sized fruit per year, almost year-round. Always available, always ready, and always flexible in preparation…for constant nutrition. A simple basic required a simple presentation…the cool colors of blues and greens present the breadfruit as is…a faithful food.

Peace: Soursop, also known as Guanabana

This fruit has the highest acceptability level at tastings, providing a pleasing sweet ‘ice-cream’ flavor. It has a thin leathery skin that is covered with spines, but these are easily broken and removed when ripe, resulting in the sweet pulp inside- thus even though it appears tough and unmanageable, there is not resistance, but perfect syrupy harmony. The bloom takes center stage here…ready to blossom with sweet peace, backed with cool, peaceful palette. Collaged is a piano primer sheet titled “the island of Ecalpon”, which is ‘no place’ spelled backwards, for peace can not be found in a place, but in God.

Self Control: Blighia Sapida

When ripe, and treated properly, this fruit can be very wholesome, but when under ripened or overripe, it is poisonous. The strokes were executed with freedom, yet remained in bloom structure. Skill sets from a 1970s typewriter book exclaim over definitive and precise technique.

Kindness: Fig

Figs ripen after most of the garden has stopped producing in late summer, after many weeks of intense heat and drought- true kindness appears during those most difficult situations…and like true kindness, fresh figs are hard to find away from their growing source, with a short shelf life. The music sheets are from a composition Beethoven kindly composed for two students as a gift.

Gentleness: Peach

A finicky fruit that grows well only in a limited climate area, this must be handled with care. In China, the soft texture and gentle flesh of the fruit gave it the slang term of ‘young bride’, one to be treated gently. A very soft hand was used to depict the peach blossom, and gently contrasted with a cool background. Webster’s definition of gentle is collaged in with other references, and the petals gently stretch across the surface from edge to edge.

Joy: Miracle Fruit…also known as Miraculous Berry

This fruit has the ability to coat the taste buds in the mouth, so that everything consumed, even sour and bitter items, after eating just one berry is sweeter. The berry pushes out from the surface of the canvas, as though it cannot be contained…for joy is not happiness, it is a gift that can sweeten even the bitterest things in life. The pages from a 1946 Webster’s dictionary contain definitions pertaining to my father, along with pages from his German geology journal. Look and find your own joy…see what definitions are there and how they pertain to your own life. The pattern in the upper corner is the alphabet, layered and turned, so as to remind you to always see things differently…through joy goggles!