Decorated Crosses

I made a series of decorated wooden crosses, all about 12″ high. My initial inspiration was day of the dead crosses, which I saw when working in Houston in 2013. Crosses tie into the themes of death, resurrection, and change and carry with them much history and belief. They are an ideal format to explore related or alternate ideas.

This is my first cross, entitled ‘God Loves Nuts’. I collected the acorns in Houston from the oak trees around the Galleria. The squirrel is ceramic in a small metal basket.  An angel at the top and two devils at the bottom complete the competition. Are you a nut? Then maybe god loves you. It is available for purchase.

This cross is entitled ‘Do Dogs Go to Heaven?’ In it, there are a series of dogs ascending upwards and cast of handmade paper. Two people on the side arms pose the question / title. I gifted this for a friends wedding, as she was a dog lover. She said if dogs don’t go to heaven, then it wouldn’t be heaven.

This cross is titled ‘Caution Ahead, Sharp Turns, Narrow Way’. In it, one has to negotiate a spiral of barbed wire in order to reach the heart at the center of the cross. This cross has been sold.

This cross is entitled ‘Love Encircles Death’. The title is etched into a piece of printed circuit board material, has 4 skulls surrounding it, and then the remainder of the cross is covered with glass hearts mounted with long pins. This cross is available for purchase.

Don’t read this unless you have a strong stomach and distorted sense of humor. This cross is entitled ‘Stick-n-Peel Cross’. If you want to crucify something, you need only stick it on the cross and then peel off when done, no nailing required. This cross is available for purchase.

This cross is entitled ‘Primordial Soup’. It is covered with tiny shells and has various bead bugs and fish coming from it. According to primordial soup theory, inorganic molecules unite to form simple organic molecules, which  unit to form complex organic molecules and then further to simple life forms. There is a lot about this theory on the internet. This cross is available for purchase.

This cross is entitled ‘Recycled Religion’. The title refers to my use of recycled bits of my jewelry to decorate it, along with some antique buttons. It is available for purchase.

This cross is entitled ‘Ruby Saint’. It is decorated with polished bits of stone and shell. In the center, a natural ruby from Vietnam is mounted and resembles a human figure. This cross is available for purchase.