Olive Tree Arts hosts an annual art show and sale each year. The theme of the art in this year's show needed to be based on the story of the Prodigal from the Bible in Luke 15:11-32. I created this piece and was floored when it won Best of Show! It's such a neat art show with over 100 pieces from different artists, so you get to see different perspectives on the same story through the different pieces of art.
Here's my inspiration statement on my piece:
What inspired me most from this parable was the father’s
loving heart. The shadow represents the father’s view that his son will always
be his little child. Even when his son basically said, “I wish you were dead
and I had your money,” the father handed the money over without bitterness. In
the culture of that day, the son should have been disinherited or even stoned.
A father who loves his son that much had to have had high hopes for that boy.
Did he pray for his baby son? Did he watch his son’s heart grow harder through
the years? Did his own heart mourn for those younger days? When the rebellious son
finally took some steps back towards the father, did the father run to meet him
and lift him in the air with such overflowing joy that he couldn’t contain
himself?
I believe he did.
