Dedicated October 6th, 1991 to the Glory of God.
The Bible begins with the words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This is the basic premise of the Judeo-Christian world-view: God created the world, the cosmos, the universe and found it very good. The worship carried out week by week in the Church is founded on this premise, that the God we worship, Creator, Redeemer, and Indwelling Spirit is the Scource, the Saviour and the Sustainer of all that is.
In Genesis, the Creation is presented as a sequence, in which unknowable oneness is continually subdivided into a series of more and more articulated levels of reality, until humankind emerges as its central revelation, and the Creator rests in contemplation of a new and completed wholeness.
The Creation Frontal presents this sequence as a series of seven rondels or circular frames in which each day of Creation is symbolized. Circles are symbols of oneness and wholeness and seven is, in ancient Near Eastern thought, the perfect number, a symbol of completeness.
On the first day, God divides the light from darkness. In the centre of the rondel light appears as a point from which rays extend outwards. On the circular border, light and dark engage in a continual and rhythmic exchange, as each state of being defines the other. This is the first and fundamental division.
On the second day, God divides the waters above from the waters below. This second division makes the world capable of supporting life. In the centre, the vertical lines represent the waters below. On the border is shown the cycle by which the various forms of water descend to the earth as raindrops, as hail and as snowflakes, only to be taken up again to renew the cycle.
On the third day, God divides the dry land from the waters and causes vegetation to grow out of the earth. On the border is a ring of single celled animals, the first life forms to develop in the seas of the young earth. The centre shows a variety of symbolic trees like those used in the ancient Near Eastern narratives including the Bible: the Tree of Life is flanked by an olive tree and a date palm.
On the fourth day, God places the sun and moon and stars in the sky to signify the continuous change from day to night as well as from season to season. This rondel is appropriately placed in the centre of the sequence to make clear the essential distinction that it is God, not the planets or other heavenly bodies once thought to be gods, who creates and rules the earth and all its life. On the border is a ring of stars which surrounds a depiction of the sun, the moon and the planets which have been discovered to date.
On the fifth day, God divides the creatures of the sky from the creatures of the waters. Genesis refers to the greatest of the sea creatures, the whale: a whale thus fills the centre of the rondel, while the border shows a variety of birds which are common in Southern Ontario.
On the sixth day, God creates the many land dwelling creatures and crowns this with the emergence of humankind – male and female – the life forms among whom God will come to be born as a human being, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The young couple are shown as representatives of the continent upon which humankind emerged. The state of paradise in which they were created is symbolized on the border by flowers and grains and fruits which are important Christian symbols.
On the seventh day, God rests and enjoys this sequence of loving creativity by which the one becomes the many in a new whole. The centre of the rondel shows the earth as it appears from outer space, in which Africa as the cradle of humankind, Israel as the birthplace of Jesus, and the borders of the Mediterranean around which Christianity spread and from which it has expanded throughout the world, are visible through the parted clouds. Surrounding the earth is a complete rainbow, a symbol of God’s promise never to destroy the earth. The border shows symbols of many of the religions of the world.
These seven rondels are interspersed with seven flames, symbolizing the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and suggesting the spirit of God brooding over the face of the primordial waters. This composition of rondels and flames is arranged upon a field of stars, an image of the universe as God’s creation. Around this starry field is a band declaring the first words of Genesis: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” the fundamental premise upon which the entire Bible, and the faith of the Christian church, is firmly based.
The stitchery in this Creation Frontal was started in July 1988 and completed, except the backing, in August 1991. The canvas is pure cotton, the stitching is pure wool, and the backing is pure linen. The work contains 225,000 stitches and took over 2000 hours to complete.