Mary Brodbeck (b. 1958), a Michigan artist, uses an ancient Japanese woodblock technique called Mokuhanga to create around her relationship with nature. She works to portray her values of closeness, welcome and home even as she remains astonished by our place on a planet surrounded by contradictory and potentially lonely vastness.       

 

This piece accomplished by carving a wood block, applying ink and pulling a print, denies the unpredictability of the process and affirms Brodbeck’s practiced expertise. Her cropped arrangement of branch and leaf against the sky are a testament to pausing in awe and gratitude. Her palette of yellows, greens, and blues with a nearly black shade of brown is both a challenge and an invitation to find our own breathtaking visual moments.

We pray to find ourselves and God again and again in beauty and to give thanks. Amen.

In gratitude, faith and hope,

Sandy Prouty
Minister of Children and Families
Montview Church