Last December I had the opportunity to visit Florence, Italy while my daughter was studying abroad. On a visit to the Uffizi museum, I was struck by the halos in Botticelli’s paintings. Halos often represent spiritual character and light in Renaissance art. I was very surprised at my physical response to seeing these in person as I’ve never been particularly drawn to the style. My eyes began to well up and I truly felt a spiritual presence in the paintings. I wish I could say that I have this level of reaction to art all the time, but it just isn’t the norm for me!

Fast forward to a month later when a little lamb comes to my husband’s veterinary office. A staff member was bottle feeding the lamb throughout the day since the mother had rejected her at birth. My daughters and I brought Meadow home for a day to photograph her. She was so young and clumsy. She was innocent and beautiful. As I worked with the images and decided to create a photo encaustic series from them, the Botticelli halos came back to my mind. But how to make the halos light and relevant? We are all so young and clumsy with our spiritual selves. Why not give the lambs their halos but have them be in the process of figuring out how to wear them? Isn’t that really what we are doing here? Growing in light and learning how to love? Then I had to figure out how to apply the halos. I tried several gold options, but in the end, in true Renaissance fashion, only the real 18k gold leaf adhered properly to the wax to give the luster I wanted. So I offer to you this sweet lamb named Meadow learning how to wear a gilded halo. I hope you love her as much as I do.