Often the most beautiful thing about artwork is what the viewer sees and discovers within it. Last week I invited the Year 1 students into the Chapel to look at and discuss the Clifton Pugh tree of life sculpture, ‘The Symbolic Tree’, that has been recently returned to the Chapel.
The students were excited to have the opportunity to sit on the stage to get a closer look and to sketch what they saw. Clifton Pugh, three-time Archibald Winner, was commissioned in 1971 to create a sculpture to be placed in the Chapel for Carey students. Inspired by a vision seen by the then Chaplain while on an outdoor ed camp, I feel I can see Pugh’s interest in Australian outback landscape. Our Year 1 students discussed how they could see aspect of the tree, its root system, keeping it alive, leaves, crosses and people in amongst it. Some could see the moon, sun and the world. Some of the drawings made the cross symbols look like windows on a tree trunk, perhaps a place for people to live? One young boy looked up at the sculpture and said he could see a smile at the top and that it was looking at him. What a beautiful interpretation!
The Chapel continues to be a place to welcome everyone in to think and reflect. With Easter only a few weeks away, I pray that we all get a chance to think and reflect, to see something beautiful and interesting. Most of all, I pray that the symbols around Easter gain real meaning. For Christians, Easter is the most important event in the calendar. We remember the ultimate sacrifice made because God loves us. As sure as my Year 1 student was that the sculpture was smiling down at him, I pray that you might know that God smiles when He sees you.
John 3:16–17 ‘For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. God gave his Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him.’
Rebecca Gaskell
Junior School Chaplain
