Around this time last year I was weeping almost everyday. I’d open up Facebook and see photo after photo of my family and friends finally receiving their COVID vaccine shots and I’d be a weepy and joyful mess for the rest of the day. It seemed that we were finally beginning to emerge from this once-in-a-century pandemic. By the time spring arrived, and with it Eastertide, I decided that my tenth Stations project would be a Stations of the Resurrection. And by the time summer arrived, I decided that that was a terrible idea.
“Maybe not this year,” one of my mentors said when I told him about how I was considering scrapping my plans. And then, sometime in the fall, I remembered a conversation that I had with the incomparable Rev. Sam Lewis more than a decade ago. It was a Sunday evening at the Brick Store Pub where a group of us had gathered for one of our endless evenings arguing about theology. As soon as she walked in the door, it was clear she was ticked off about something. “I heard the cross preached this morning without any mention of the resurrection!” she practically shouted after she’d ordered a beer.
It’s her outrage over that homiletic misfire that’s been ringing in my head the last few months as I’ve prepared this year’s project. The promise of the resurrection is with us always - especially when we find ourselves in the shadow of the cross. So, I’m especially excited to share with you my first Stations of the Cross and Resurrection: Pandemic Resilience. I’m creating eight diptychs using the scriptural Stations of the Cross and pairing them with eight Stations of the Resurrection, which take viewers from the empty tomb to the road to Damascus where Saul becomes Paul.
Jesus Is Condemned to Death/The Empty Tomb
Jesus’ condemnation by Pilate is paired with the empty tomb, and while the Station of the Cross lifts up images of the devastating second wave of COVID in India, the Station of the Resurrection features images of the first COVID vaccinations. My hope is that by pairing these two artworks we’re able to hold together and in tension, the ongoing pandemic, the unequal distribution of the vaccine globally, and the joy and hope many of us felt - and still feel - seeing medically vulnerable people receive the protection against serious illness that the vaccine provides.
Jesus Accepts His Cross/Jesus Meets Mary Magdalene
This second diptych pairs Jesus accepting his cross with the resurrected Christ meeting Mary Magdalene. The Station of the Cross features images from U.S. meatpacking plants where exploitative labor practices fueled devastating and deadly COVID outbreaks. The Station of the Resurrection features images from the workers rights movement of the last year. I have found great hope in the ways Americans are re-thinking and re-configuring their work lives.
Simon Helps Jesus Carry the Cross/Jesus on the Road to Emmaus
The third artwork in this series pairs Simon carrying the cross with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. The Station of the Cross depicts Simon carrying the cross in the midst of the shrine outside of Gold Spa in Atlanta where Asian women were brutally murdered. And the Station of the Resurrection lifts up images of hope and solidarity from the peaceful protests in Philadelphia in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
You can pre-order both postcard and print sets. Each will include all 16 artworks. Prints will ship by the last week of February. Postcards will ship mid-March as production time will take a little longer. Just like last year, a portion of the proceeds from poster print sales will benefit RIP Medical Debt.