| Station IV – Jesus Meets His Mother Artist – William LaVoie – unfired clay bas-relief There are countless images of this scene of Mary meeting her son on the way of sorrows. Most of them depict a serene woman resigned to the situation. Other images, contemporary pictures of women mourning the death of children in Ramalah, of a woman in Africa grieving over the starvation of her child, seem to capture the sorrow, fear and desolation of death – particularly the death of a child. This African woman was the model for my piece. The composition of the relief is based on a traditional icon – a frame, the arch seperates the earthly from the holy. The holy, usually painted with gold leaf, is here veiled in darkness. The figure of Mary, rather than serenely confronting us, turns out of the frame into the earthly - looking on her son, as he and the crowd passes, leaving her standing alone. |