Elizabeth Wickland

Each piece emerged from the exploration of the life of prayer as a garden in the wilderness. We live in the complex junction of the already and the not-yet, of living in the garden in the wilderness, and of expanding the garden here, where the soil seems unlikely to support such life.

“The Seed is in the Ground” is acrylic on canvas and took shape over Lent in the spring of 2022. It grew out of prayers asking what was being planted in a wilderness season of my own life. As happens in the garden, it began with the seed in the ground, and it wasn’t until after Easter that the flower itself took shape. The snowdrop was the last element added, after the work tending to everything else had been done. The image depicts flourishing in the wasteland, what might grow from the barren soil if we are patient and tend to it gently and slowly, at the speed of a seed in the ground. Its title is a reference to Wendell Berry’s poem by the same name.

“Portal to Paradise” is a relief print in ink on tissue embedded in encaustic medium on wood from September 2022. It is a closer glimpse at the flourishing found through a life of prayer, even in the midst of days that feel more wilderness than wonder. The linocut portal was inspired by the college gates in Oxford, reminders that we are grown most beautifully in community; distinct and united in Christ.