Tree Of Life
Valentyna Musiienko Vasylyeva
- Medium
Ukraine
ca. 2019
White and blue pen drawing, gold acrylic paint on blue cardboard paper
Vasylyeva’s artwork uses a tree as a metaphor for marriage and draws on Ukrainian folk art, which relies heavily on patterns for its style. Largely iconographic, in the center of the composition are a man and a woman, clothed in Ukrainian folk costume, “who have merged together as a trunk of the tree,” said Vasylyeva. The golden color, for Vasylyeva, symbolizes eternity, nobility, and divine nature, and the blue “is the color of heavenly space.” The title takes its name from the Book of Mormon but also uses the family as a symbol of lasting eternal happiness. Additionally, Vasylyeva sought inspiration from Matthew 19:6 as a framework: “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”