Over the past month, Christ our Light Parish in Princeton and Zimmerman invited parishioners to help create the seed mosaic pictured above.
“In this time of division and discord, Christ our Light is making an effort to plant the seeds of unity and peace through visual art and story,” said Maureen Putnam, director of music and liturgy at Christ our Light.
The mosaic depicts the Peaceful Kingdom from Isaiah 11:1-9.
“We used lentils and seeds and we even had a parishioner out walking through the wood, opening up pods to find items to use in the mosaic,” Putnam said.
The parish has been creating seed mosaics for a few years — inspired by parishioner Jim Olson’s trip to Germany.
“Parishes in Germany already have this tradition,” Putnam said. “It has been fun to get inspiration from them and for us to share our mosaics with them through Jim.”
The seeds, which are not glued down, are carefully spooned or poured onto the basic drawing outline Putnam drafted onto paper.
The paper sits inside a wooden frame built by another parishioner.
“Part of why our liturgy development team supports this effort is to create awareness about the visual arts. Often we focus on music and we want to also include the visual arts. We have so many talented people in our parish and we want to encourage them to share that gift,” Putnam said.
The 4-foot-by-8-foot mosaic will be on display at the Princeton location of Christ Our Light until Nov. 28. Then the seeds will return to nature to feed the birds.