The Frontier

In my diorama titled The Frontier, a tense scene unfolds as a band of soldiers, possibly Hessians, emerge from the shadows of a dense forest. Accompanied by a group of Native allies, they approach a frontier homestead cautiously. 

Inside the home, a colonial family prepares for the unknown. The husband stands by the window, gripping his musket tightly, his gaze fixed on the advancing figures. Behind him, his father-in-law shields the man’s wife and her sister, both women visibly tense. The younger sister clutches a kitchen knife, hastily grabbed from the set dining table, ready to defend their home if necessary.

The scene draws inspiration from the timeless, suspenseful frontier narratives of John Ford’s The Searchers and Drums Along the Mohawk. Set in the mid-1700s, this diorama captures the mix of fear, determination, and unity in the face of an uncertain encounter, immersing us in the atmosphere of America’s early colonial frontier.