Artwork Description:
Station number FIVE is entitled, SIMON OF CYRENE CARRIES THE CROSS FOR JESUS. This wall assemblage was executed in mixed media on stretched canvas. Christ was executed during the Passover Festival in Jerusalem, a time when Jews from all parts of the Roman Empire were in the city to celebrate. The Roman soldiers who were escorting Christ to Calvary saw how weak he was becoming, and consequently forced someone from the crowd to assist Him. They selected Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross. Simon, a North African Jew from present day Libya, was visiting Jerusalem with his two sons, Alexander and Rufus. Please note that the image if the cross appears in this work multiple times and in multiple materials. One is an actual wood cross, which I found at a 1977 flea market. It jumps off the canvas edge in order to -- realistically and symbolically -- break the boundaries within its limits as a tool of capital punishment. The primitive design behind this cross involves the painted outline of a house, which represents the journey Christ is about to take home. . . or to the House of God via the cross. My surface textures resemble tree bark, and they seem to appear and vanish in places as a result of my optical tools. There is a hidden message within the piece that references our constant relationship to Christ, especially whenever we are asked to bear a cross. . . whenever we take on the roll of Simon and suffer to some unknown reason. My materials include durable gold metallic thread, acrylic polymer emulsions, ground pigments, acrylic paint, gloss acrylic gel, pulverized mica coated with titanium dioxide, Dutch gouache, rice paper, gold dust ethanol aluminum. French oil pastels, Dutch dry pastels, fragment of antique German cross, British vine charcoal, and, canvas stretched over wood. Please note that he imagery of Simon came from a theater program. . . I found in a dumpster. . . for the1964 film, THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD by George Stevens. I hand copied the face of Sidney Poitier, who played Simon in the film. I next scanned my miniature drawing of Poitier digitally reproduced it onto natural vellum. My final step involved painted over these images with white and black Dutch gouache.