Thistles And Lilies
Cassandra Barney
- Medium
United States
ca. 2019
Oil and antique wallpaper on panel
Thistles and Lilies depicts Barney’s ancestor Abigail Starbuck Coffin, a pioneer doctor whose life was filled with “heartbreaking trials and unfaltering faith.” Though Coffin experienced the loss of a child and a spouse, as well as severe hunger and cold, she, said Barney, “chose to serve others and to find beauty and joy in everyday life” and has been an example to the artist throughout her life.
The thistle at her feet is a symbol of hard work, suffering, and Christ’s deliverance; in the lower edge of the painting grow lilies, a symbol of purity. Barney included these not because Coffin was perfect but rather because her story continually reminds her “to live a more beautiful and pure life even while we pass through trials and heartaches.”