Pomegranate Trees of Life

I have been cutting out quite a large tifafai these last two days ( the width of the vliesofix which is 90 cm). These two will also form part of my exhibition- as I wanted to create an impression of a wonderful pomegranate mosaic dating from roman times which we saw museum staff restoring in the Museum in Alleppo.The size of the pomegranates were really large compared to the tree. You also find a lot of pomegranate imagery in early brocades which were often woven in the middle eastern world. And pomegranates are still very much a part of daily life in Syria- you find pomegranate juicing stands all over the souq dispensing the richly coloured juice from the piles of pomegranates adorning their mobile stands- something akin to pomegranate heaven! I also like the formal aspects of much of the islamic tiling work which you find everywhere and so the tifaifai actually lends itself really well to a very stylised all over pattern. Then by coincidence and one of those serendipitous moments- I initially cut away some of the red from the centre - then did not like the result and placed some of what I had cut out back on the piece and lo ( as my daughter noticed) it looks a bit like a crusader cross. Of course Syria is the home of the best crusader castle of them all - Crac des Chevaliers.

I will also be placing something in the centre of the blue piece- perhaps another cross inspired thing.

Deb from WA I have no way of contacting you- you left a message on my previous post- if you go to my profile there should be a contact link there.