Piece Christ

Howdy Folks,

I thought I would share a recent work with you, Piece Christ. This is the first piece I have done utilizing one of the crucifixes given to me by Sandra Bowden. It is currently on display at Union University as part of my exhibition there, Bits of Redemption. The exhibition contains 17 pieces of my found object assemblage work. I will be heading back there to give a lecture and reception and to bring back the work later this month. Some of you have probably heard that a few pieces [ok, 17 out of the 18 that I sent] were damaged in shipping. I joked that we could just call the exhibition, Bits, but I decided to take the 360 mile trip to Jackson, TN to repair the pieces. I am so glad I went as all the pieces save one were perfectly repairable. Anyway, It was a good trip, and all went well with the repairs. I also met several wonderful people and talk about the work on an informal basis with students and faculty.

Below the work, I have included the artist's statement that accompanies the exhibition. All comments are welcome.


Not everything is fragile, but everything is broken. Time, age, use, obsolescence… All things become lost, trashed or forgotten. The works in Bits of Redemption are composed of the discarded and forgotten pieces of our culture and the fractured, decayed elements of nature. Sticks, stones and bones unite with oxidized metals, bits of worn plastic and broken pottery. The process is redemptive. Pieces long forgotten and thought worthless are given value in their potential to unite with other redeemed bits to form a new aesthetic. Beauty is shaped from the raw substances and the forgotten evidences of our existence. This process of redemption becomes a physical metaphor for a spiritual truth. Christ takes our ugliness and brokenness and sees the beauty and potential in us. He redeems us back into a wholeness and unity with God. I am made keenly aware of this as I work, and a s a result every piece, for me, becomes a meditation on Divine essence.