Christ as Green Man

This piece was influenced by the perspective of a woman named Hildegard of Bingen who lived in the 1100’s. She was a German Benedictine abbess, philosopher, Christian mystic, and composer of music. She viewed Christ as the “Green Man.” She saw him this way because he brings growth, fecundity, that sense of jubilance that new green grass brings in the spring after a long dark winter. She also believed that “the only sin is drying up.” If you dry up, you do not continue to grow or change / evolve. Hildegard coined the term “Veriditas” (or Vereditas). The definition is both literal, as in “green,greeness and growth;” yet also metaphorical, as in “vigor, verdure, freshness and vitality.” For Hildegard, the spiritual aspects were just as important as the physical meaning. Veriditas was the “greening power of God.” It was in everything, including humans. The frame is made of steel, textured in the forge, with a patina of Tiffany Green applied.