This Ketubah celebrates a water colour painted still life comprising of iconic Australian flora (Waratahs, bottle brushes, banksias and wattles, eucalyptus leaves and gum nuts) together with the 7 species of Israel (figs, dates, pomegranates, grapes, olives, wheat and barley). This thematic undercurrent of the Ketubah harvests notions of the natural, the earth, ancestry, homeland, heritage and seasons of love which iterate through life.
This visual harvest of significant Israeli species and Australian flora symbolises the ‘marriage’ of the Brides and Grooms heritages and identities –
past and present as they embark upon their future and into forever.
In showcasing the beauty of nature- the 7 species of Israel reflect Israel’s perpetual importance to the Jewish people as their homeland, garden of wonder and acknowledge biblical origins.
Furthermore the Ketubah background is created and painted through iterations and layers of water colour paint and pigment which are washed and carried into each other,
analogous to the love which carries two souls and blends them into harmony.
The elegant deep navy here sings of the ocean and is a suitable colour to echo and reinforce the vitality of the fruit and flora populating the foreground of the composition.
As a document recognising the embrace of marriage, this Ketubah harnesses organic imagery and gentle botanical motifs rendered through delicate water colour brush strokes to gesture the beauty, intricacy and serenity of marriage as well as a love that nourishes, blossoms and blooms over time. The notions of fate, history and legacy are all the more significant to this love story as the bride and grooms’ grandparents were friends when they immigrated to Australia.
The initials are rendered in a water colours with echoes of the floral details to cohere the composition and to visually synthesise it together.
The hymn “אני לדודי ודודי לי” translating as “ I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine” is the most celebrated sentence from Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs 6:3), written by King Solomon as a romantic declaration between husband and wife.
Wrapping around the initials, echoing the shape of an enclosure to foreshadow the future home that will be created by the union of these two souls becoming one.
