In my first effort in creating Catholic Sacred art, I carved portrait sculptures of St. Thomas à Becket and St. Mary from disused oaken barn beams and the Stations of the Cross in basswood.

I carved St. Thomas and The Madonna in a deliberately archaic style, simplifying the bodies and focusing on the hands and faces. I did this in an effort to emphasize the spiritual nature of the characters by de-emphasizing their physical attributes.

In the Stations of the Cross, I concentrated on the poignant physical pain of the Passion. Limited by budget and space to a one-foot square format, I focused on hands and faces to bring the action closer to the viewer. To further increase the dramatic effect of the series on the devotee praying at the Stations, I depicted each of the fourteen episodes from a different point of view, as if we are viewing the Passion not from afar, but from within the jostling crowd lining the Via Dolorosa.

To read more about the images at St. Thomas a Becket, please go to “Carving for the Saints.”