 Shortened from Martin Luther’s 1577 commentary on Psalm 133, Pennsylvania Dutch fraktur letter forms were designed on a honeycomb grid and overlaid with my newborn son’s footprints. In religious communities, such as the Ephrata Cloister in Pennsylvania where I became especially intrigued with Anabaptist intentional community, the printing press was also used to create ornamented text-based pieces for the home: exhortations, warnings, and scriptural truths for ordinary time. It is in this spirit, and also according to a personal tradition, that I have celebrated the birth of each of my children with a work in a gallery exhibition. May you, though now small, grow great, Jesse Nathanael, by the peace of the family and community around you. |