This is a solstice wreath that I created with my mother using wire, several pieces of silver ribbon, and natural leaves and branches collected from my backyard. The main foundation of the wreath is made of evergreen branches, a flora which represents the everlasting life of the earth. The ‘garnish’ interspersed around the wreath is a mix of holly and oak leaves representing fertility and wisdom, respectively, and at the bottom tied with silver ribbon is some rosemary for remembrance and home.
The purpose of the solstice wreath, which is a part of many pagan belief systems and ancient indigenous traditions, is to honor the cycle of light and darkness that dictates the seasons and to celebrate life, family, and the giving nature of the earth. I created it, and chose to create it with my family (my mom), to represent how our values and our aesthetic can reflect a positive view of the earth as a giver and make art more sustainable. Because it serves a spiritual function as well as an aesthetic one it is not a materialist or consumerist piece but a functional artistic expression. In addition, a wreath is often hung on the front door of a home and in that way it represents values of family and natural harmony over individualism and fabricated aestheticism. Even the shape is reminiscent of sustainable values; of a closed, waste-less economy, the Raworth doughnut, a feedback loop, arms looped in a hug, our earth.