Emily Jung Miller

The full moon closest to Autumn Equinox is known as the Harvest Moon ~ usually in September, sometimes in October. In Chinese culture, the season is celebrated with Mid-Autumn Festival, the most important festival of the year after Lunar New Year. The Harvest Moon rises around sunset and appears full and bright for three days.

This artwork is a hybrid painting / sculpture. A handmade paper bas-relief of the full moon, complete with identifiable craters, floats above a painted background of winter harvest crops: chrysanthemum, ginkgo, and pomegranate. This fruit, leaf, and flower were chosen for their deep-rooted, worldwide mythologies centered on the balance of life and death. Their symbolism across Asia and Europe spans from vitality and longevity to mourning and loss, an appropriate balance for the harvest season, which marks the peak of abundance and celebration and also the beginning of a long winter season of darkness, stillness, and rest.

Visible only from a steep angle, a metallic gold circle is painted behind the moon, promising the return of light in the seasonal cycle.

This original painting / sculpture was sold through an online and live auction to benefit Arts Council of Lake Oswego's Art + Community in Conversation series, around such topics as diversity, equity and inclusion, artist education, and hands-on programming through the arts.

Commissions are open starting in fall 2024. Contact me to reserve a space now.