Three Small Altarpieces for St. John's Cathedral, Denver

EPIPHANY

For this piece for Epiphany, Grant was given the prompt. "stars, science and nature as paths to God" He spent a week sketching in the forests around St. Gregory's Abbey in Michigan, and was inspired by a few scenes from The Lion King. He also had Shirley Bassey's "I, Capricorn" on repeat. in painting this work while Australia burned he reflects "Now is a great time to listen deeply to our planet and universe for God's voice". 

LENT

View fullsize

Lent is a favourite season of mine, because it gives us the chance to sit with our own mortality, in a way that we tend to avoid. I am so used to attending awkward midwestern funerals where folks mumble pain-avoidant, invented theology. Sitting with pain, with suffering and even with death is transformative. For this piece I wanted to sit with the idea of mourning our future destruction of the planet. For many of us, the reality of climate change is only just now sinking in, and I wanted us to have the space to grieve that. Stylistically, I was inspired by a recent re-reading of C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche Myth. 

EASTER

In painting this piece for Easter, I wanted to start with the explosive, joyful feeling of Easter and Vernal excitement. I let my imagination run wild a bit. In that spirit, cicadas have gradually emerged as a symbol to discuss the energy and noise of the resurrection. Many of the plant motifs in this work (laurel, aloe, olives, lily) each have their meanings in the context of Easter. Still, I spent most of my time meditating on the life-cycle of cicadas and contemplating their re-emergence.

The text I included from Wendell Berry’s poem “Mad Farmer Liberation Front” has always captured my imagination: “Practice Resurrection.” It struck me again as I was painting, realizing that as those who imitate Christ, perhaps we have too quickly skipped past this responsibility. We have made too weak a habit of our call to tear down, and rebuild, to die, and come back, resilience and re-imagination. We have fallen far short of being known for re-animation.

So this Easter, I’m sitting with the ways that Christ (and the cicada) invite us to constant renewal and reinvention. Nothing comes back to life the same as it was before. Let us transform.