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Resurrection,
2000. 9
Bonded Bronze
Intended as a sort of fifteenth and final Station, The Resurrection
Altarpiece was dedicated at St Anthony's Catholic Church in Portland
Oregon in June of 2000. While the Stations of the Cross were intended as a
very direct and visceral interpretation of the Passion, The Resurrection, was
intended as a less literal, more lyrical interpretation on the theme of
rebirth, re-inspiration, or redemption. In this piece the road to death
depicted in the Stations is vindicated by a consummation that implies victory
over the forces of annihilation. If the Passion was a sort of gamble, faith in
the face of certain annihilation, the Resurrection is an affirmation of the
delight in attaining glory through that improbable path. He is just awakened,
seeing before him not only his own path to reunification, but the multitudes
of dispirited with whom he has lived. His expression is to say, "Itıs
fine. You are welcome. Come this way." In the grandest sense it is
"I see this, and I see you. It is the same". Formally, I see the
piece being about smoke, about spirals, about the drapery veil falling off as
the figure arises into the less corporeal realm.
 The
fact that light coming off the south window would ignite the upper torso in
gold while the ground light of the church would base the feet and legs in
blue made the composition a natural for the transition from material to
ethereal. While the square frame of the wall demanded, and a conservative
need compelled a flowing drapery, I'll confess to a metaphoric preference to
an overarching shape to tie the outline together. Be it shell or womb, the
entire is conceived as an organic frame for a life promoted as archetypal of
integration between living and ideal form.
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