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Artist’s Statement I make statues of Christian saints and of holy persons from non-Christian religions. The inspiration for the statues of saints comes mostly from carvings in medieval and early Renaissance churches. Before carving each piece, I research the tradition of depictions of the saint. After that I close the books and try to do my own twist on the tradition, using new symbols and ideas. There is, of course, a two-thousand-year folk tradition of carving images of saints, and I try to work innovatively in that tradition. St. Teresa of Ávila, like St. Francis, abhorred solemnity when it came to matters of the spirit, and I attempt to express that spiritual amusement and joy in each piece. To get some of the effect of medieval craftsmen, I carve the original of each statue in clay; make a mold; work a slurry of gypsum and other materials into the mold; and then my wife, Karen, paints each piece by hand to make it look like old wood or stone. For special-order pieces and the pieces we sell at art shows, I often use a slurry of gypsum and various metal powders (bronze, copper, brass) and other materials to get a variety of effects. Each piece, then, is handmade by us. Every piece comes with a card that gives a brief history of the saint and an explanation of how he or she has become the patron of certain professions, animals, or situations. Because the pieces are made of a resilient architectural material, they can go outside. Why make statues of saints? In addition to their role of offering solace and favor, saints are, I think, worth venerating because their lives illuminate some positive alternatives to accepted patterns of thought and action. That is, their stories can help illustrate the best instincts in us–lightheartedness in the face of peril, helping the downtrodden, generosity offered without anticipation of reward or even acknowledgment–that can get buried in the dominant messages of all cultures.
For what it's worth, I have a
master's degree in English literature from the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee and was an associate professor of English for five
years. After that, I edited theological books--many of them about
saints--for fifteen years, before turning to carving images of saints.
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