Leaf Art

The first 4 pieces in this set of

‘Leaf Art’

were created while I was reading
‘Gems of Divine Mysteries’,
written by Bahá’u’lláh.

This little book inspired me so much and touched my heart with wonder and delight that I was compelled to create these pieces.

Weaving small threads of my understanding and thoughts, from reading these sacred words, was what created each piece’s story line.

by Terri Turner 2004

First came...

‘Veiled’

This piece of ‘Leaf Art’ was inspired by the theme of the veil. The metaphor of the veil is used often throughout many of the Bahá’í sacred texts. It was only when I was working with this theme, in making these pieces, that I gleaned this deeper understanding of the metaphor of the veil.

'How something as soft and gentle as a piece of beautiful woven fabric could hide so much truth and prevent so much from being seen and understood. How the human mind sees so little through a veil and believes it knows all there is to see. How the human mind sees a little and then makes up the rest, if it is there or not, and believes it knows all there is to know. How the human mind thinks because it can’t see something, then it does not exist, so there is no need to waist time pondering or wondering or contemplating. How the human mind is content with so little of the truth. How the human mind is content with a view of a puddle and misses out completely on the ocean just beyond them. How a little piece of fabric is all that is separating humanity from peace and unity. The results of leaving this little piece of fabric, veil, between humanity and truth is the cause of so much devastation and barbaric behaviour world wide and century’s long’.

The photocopy of this piece actually shows far more detail, colour and texture than the original piece because the use of the bright lights shining through the top veil while photocoping. The original piece is very subtle indeed.

'The veil can hide so much and still remain very beautiful. A veil is soft but can cause so much pain and despair. You can even see through the veil and believe you can see all there is to see. A veil can be moved with so little effort, even a breath, but if left in place can hide its truth for centuries.

It is only a veil that separates knowledge and us all from the immense oceans of Gods love. Humans have created extremely complex systems in an attempt to show themselves clearer paths through today’s modern societies and all they really need to do is lift up their own arm and pull back the inner veils.

I am constantly left amazed at how dangerous it is, for humanity, not to recognise the immense importance of the ‘subtle’. This modern world has convinced it’s self that big is what is more important and you should not take your eye of it. The truth behind the veil is it is the tinny pieces that make up the big that should be looked at first. The tinny and subtle pieces are what directs, dictates and forms all the eventual big.

The second piece

‘Like unto a Tree’

An honouring of the theme of the tree which is used extensively throughout all the Baha’i writings. I am left in total awe at the immense beauty and respect Bahá’u’lláh gives to the tree and to it’s leaves and it’s fruit throughout all of His writings. What an honour, indeed?

The leaves, in this piece of art come from different trees and they unit together to create a frame around a landscape. The land has been built up and made fertile over centuries from the falling leaves, sticks, nuts, flowers and fruit from many millions of different plants. The single ‘leaf tree’ in the landscape in this Leaf Art piece is to show the great importance the tree symbol has been given by Bahá’u’lláh in His sacred texts. The circular leaf rising up over the horizon line is a symbol of a new understanding breaking through like the sun rising early in the morning, piercing a new light into darkness, a new level of awareness and understanding into the minds of humanity.

The rich blue satin that the leaves have been sewn onto is to represent the foundation, the ‘fabric of life’ theme. The fabric of the physical realm is united with the leaf theme and sewn together with colourful threads. The thread is a symbol of the spiritual realm entering into the material realm and uniting. The spirit thread theme holds the two realms together and unites.

The thread sewn around or onto leaves came to me in a dream a few years earlier. All the images I was looking at, in my dream, just had a simple sewn line running down one side or the other.

The rich blue fabric colour is to represent the day light sky. The gold thread has been sewn directly onto the blue fabric to represent the magic of the night sky, full of wonder and beauty. The importance of the sky theme, in this piece, is to represent air and the critical relationship between it and all of humanity. Human beings and leaves need to breathe. An important connection exists between humanity and the humble leaf that produces that air.

The human and the tree have an invisible relationship, which is so often forgotten or ignored.

The third piece is

‘Separation leads to Unity’

Each time I gaze on the third piece of ‘Leaf Art’ my heart is filled with wonderment, love and gratefulness for having been honoured. Honoured to have been called to find Bahá’u’lláh.

'The huge awareness and understanding I gained after reading the description Bahá’u’lláh gave about the importance of understanding the meaning of separation, is what guided the spirit within this piece. When Bahá’u’lláh describes the meaning about the two edged sword theme that came from the primal Point’s mouth and that it only had one meaning, separation, my entire being becomes uplifted and my breath is refreshed with cool sweet air.

In this piece of ‘Leaf Art’, inspired by this particular text, six leaves have left, have separated from the group. Even though the group pattern is beautiful it is at an immature stage of uniformity and is veiled. The six separated leaves have pulled the veil back and now have to find a new way to come back together but this time not at an immature state of uniformity but at
a newer level, unveiled and in a more mature stage of Unity.

The fabric again represents veils and the ‘Fabric of Life” theme. The square shape is being used to symbolise the thought process of moving out of the square.
‘Thinking outside of the box’.

Again the thread is to symbolise the relationship between the spiritual realm and the physical realm. The colour purple and the gold thread are to symbolise the high station, the realm of spirit, plays in this process. The connection between detachment and the importance placed by Bahá’u’lláh, on the process of separation, is what speaks the loudest in this piece to me.

The final piece in this set

‘The Crossed’

This final piece of ‘Leaf Art’, in this series, is about joy, about a journey with others, about sailing through a landscape of wonderment. All were once leaves, serving in vital roles on trees, somewhere in the physical world.

'Now, after the leaves have experienced separation and a second birth they find themselves, still in the physical realm, but moving in landscapes they have never experienced before. Their feet walk on the earth but their very being exists in heaven’.

‘They have all crossed over a bridge that they can not return on. As their feet still move on the earth they find themselves moving through a world made anew, a world made of spirit. They are all still leaves but are now serving in new ways. All have found what God had designed uniquely for them to do on this journey and all draw down the power from the Holy Spirit as they serve humanity.

"On earth as it is in heaven..."

The theme of thread is very powerful in this piece once more. Its application is not only to show the relationship between the two realms of spirit and the material but it now also depicts the crossing. The use of the crossed thread is about this powerful stage that humanity has now entered
‘a bridge that we shall not return on’stated by the Universal House of Justice.

The stage of the crossed.

The purple fabric has been rent as under and the leaves are not veiled. The realm the leaves are now living in has been forged between two other worlds, which are still veiled.

The little pieces of fabric, sewn within this ‘between world’ are only remnants to keep the individuals, who have crossed over, reminded not to go back to being veiled back to sleep.

‘Leaving thoughts’

The leaves I use in these pieces of ‘Leaf Art’ are symbols of themselves and my humble attempt to show some of the ways I see Bahá’u’lláh describing them in his sacred texts. If I sit here and create pieces of ‘Leaf Art’ for the rest of my life I will never exhaust this theme.

The leaves I collect are mainly from native Australian trees, which I have grown up with in Perth, Western Australia. As a young child I was allowed to play and befriend entire forests. Forests that God had planted and that had been growing in this landscape for centuries. The spirit of these trees and the land and the rocks completely encapsulated me and until I was 35, I actually believed I was a tree.

When I found Bahá’u’lláh’s writings a few years later I was so over flowing with love and joy to have found His sacred words. Can you imagine what I felt like when I found the sacred words that said all humans were ‘like unto a tree’. The spirit from these Australian native forests kept my ‘spirit ember’ burning until I found the source of that spirit , Bahá’u’lláh.

The leaves of Australian trees are like leather and I press them to preserve their subtle beauty. Most of the leaves I collect and use in my work are one’s that have just fallen to the ground or have just turned yellow, red or orange hues on the trees and are about to fall. This is the Australian tree’s equivalent to the European tree’s dropping their leaves in autumn.

The Australian native trees only let a few leaves drop gradually over the entire year. These trees have adapted to grow in very poor soils so they have to feed themselves by dropping their own parts gradually over an entire year. These parts that gently drop to the ground all year long are leaves, flower caps, flower petals, twigs and nuts. Most people who come and live in Australia from all corners of the earth don’t understand these unique trees systems of adaptation and call them ‘messy’. Very little of this native Australian forest remains today in the developed and suburban areas or farm lands.

There has been more of these forests and heath lands cleared here in Western Australia in my own live time,over the past 40 years,than was cleared by the first European settlers who arrived here in 1826.

The leaves that I collect are symbolic of me. When I collect the leaves it is how I see my own life’s journey when God picked me up as I was falling.

He preserved me and gave me another life another chance, I maybe still a human and an artist but nothing in my life today is anything like my life was back then. God gave me another chance another shot at life. I collect the leaves and give them another chance another role, a sacred role.

When each leaf is about to fall from it’s immature stage of uniformity and is forced to go through the second birth stage. I pick them up, as God did with me, from this immature station, preserve their essence and when they are changed and transformed they are given a new purpose to serve, to be worked and woven and sewn into a new sacred role of expression.

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The other sewn Australian Native Leaves artworks in this set...

I press the leaves first (like you would press flowers) this helps retain a level of their original colour...
Australian Native plant leaves are very strong and solid...

I sew the leaves onto delicate layered fabrics with diverse coloured threads or each other or other vegitation such as paper bark...

the fabric is a symbol of the
"fabric of life"...
the fabric also refers to the spiritual concept of inner spiritual eyes wearing veils...how soft and delicate a veil is but we become comfortable thinking we can still see clearly while wearing them...

I use leaves to reflect the concept of "leaves of one tree" or "leaves of one branch" as a symbol of humanity living all on one planet as one human family...living all on the one "Tree of Life"...

sewing is a symbol for the action of unity...unifying the diverse parts together into unique relationships of harmony in diversity...

when diverse objects and diverse peoples come in contact with each other they can create light and immense beauty if they choose to act through unity...

The circle leaves only happen at a particular time of year and only on some trees. Why you ask? I have not worked that out so far.

In this piece of "Leaf Art" I have sewn many of these unique little circle leaves together to celebrate the Institute process of education.

All these people coming together all over the world in circles to prayer together, to study sacred text together, to educate spiritual concepts to children as well as teenages. A celebration to working together in sacred circles.

The other leaf art images are on paper or card...I also use coloured pencils to replace the thread with coloured dots.