Xijia (Romee) Lai

Father’s Garden

The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9 NIV)

“382"}Father’s GardenThis work draws from the Genesis account of the Garden of Eden, where humanity is placed within a world that is wholly given—formed, ordered, and sustained by God. Rather than presenting the garden as a distant origin, the painting approaches it as an ongoing condition: a space in which choice, perception, and trust continue to unfold.At the center of the composition stands a tree that resists clear definition. It simultaneously evokes the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, allowing the two to overlap and blur. This ambiguity is intentional. It reflects the instability of human perception—how easily what is given can be reinterpreted, and how choice is often exercised not in clarity, but within uncertainty.The figures of Adam and Eve are situated within this tension. Their presence is not only narrative, but reflective, pointing toward a recurring human inclination to reach, to decide, and to define independently. The question that emerges is not confined to them, but extends outward: what does it mean to choose rightly?This inquiry is shaped by a personal engagement with the idea of discernment. It considers the difference between receiving life through trust and attempting to establish meaning through one’s own judgment. The distinction is subtle yet consequential. What appears as wisdom may, at times, be a movement away from dependence.Through this work, I invite the viewer to dwell within this question: whether one is oriented toward life as something received, or toward knowledge as something grasped. The garden remains a place of provision, but also of decision—a space where meaning is not only encountered, but responde”