The Lemon Benediction

2025

Grandpa’s lemons, Grandma’s rosaries, rocks from home, porcelain, paper clay, various glazes, beeswax, cotton wicks, lemon oil, steel

The Lemon Benediction a sculptural installation offering in steel, wax, and clay that weaves personal memory with sacred form, invoking the spirit of ritual and inheritance. Installed within a white, sunlit enclosure, the work creates a space that feels part chapel, part family yard and overall a place where light, scent, and symbolism converge.

At the heart of the piece stands a welded candelabra, its steel rods shaped into scrolls inspired by wrought iron gates, reminiscent of those guarding old homes and cemeteries. It takes the shape of my grandparents’ lemon tree, a symbol of rootedness and resilience. Suspended from its arms are lemon-shaped candles, cast from real fruit gathered from that very tree. When lit, they emit a soft, golden glow; a quiet illumination that blesses the space.

My grandmother's rosaries are hung throughout the branches, dangling delicately in the candle light. Beneath the structure, porcelain lemons lie scattered among cinder blocks, reminiscent of fallen lemons on the concrete backyard. On the right wall, a periwinkle ceramic holy water font holds lemon oil instead of water. Its color and scent invoke both reverence and nostalgia, transforming the act of anointing into a personal blessing. Adjacent to it, two cruciform sculptures are formed from intersecting beams of clay and imagined light. They allude to both spiritual suffering and transcendence, while resisting any singular religious interpretation.

The Lemon Benediction is a devotional act to the lived sacredness of home, of labor, of the small and overlooked rituals that hold families together.