Pennsylvania artist Virginia
Maksymowicz said she created her sculpted reliefs of the Stations of the
Cross using real people as models because she wanted each Station to
seem "more immediate" to viewers than be some abstract imagery they
could easily dismiss.
"In most Roman Catholic churches, the Stations are up all the time and
we sort of dismiss the imagery and don't notice it anymore," Maksymowicz
said in a phone interview from Lancaster, Pa. "Some contemporary ones
are simplified or abstract. However, I think you can make it more
universal, more personal, by making it more particular with casting real
people."
Maksymowicz's sculptures are on display in Washington at the Basilica of
the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception through April 25.
"The process that I use involves alginate and it picks up every pore and wrinkle; it makes it really real," she told Catholic News Service.
At the beginning of the casting process, the part of the model that is
needed for a particular Station, such as the hands or the feet or the
face, is covered in alginate, a nontoxic, flexible mold-making material
often used in dental applications. A secondary mold, called a "mother"
or "shell," is made of plaster-impregnated gauze and formed over the
alginate.
"I didn't want to go the (Mel) Gibson route and go gory," she noted,
referring to Gibson's 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ," criticized
by some as being too violent and bloody.
"In an odd way, that turns people away. But having real people would make it more immediate."
After the alginate and gauze molds are removed from the model, they must
be reinforced with pottery plaster. Open ends are "dammed" with
Plastilene, an oil-based clay, and a type of ultra-hard plaster called
Hydro-Stone is added.
"There's something about body casting that is so real. No matter how
realistic a sculptor you are, it never allows the realism of being able
to see pores and wrinkles. With casting, they can see for themselves,"
Maksymowicz said.
The 14 Stations of the Cross, also called the Way of the Cross, are the
chief scenes of Christ's suffering and death. The Resurrection is
sometimes included as the 15th one, though it is not traditionally part
of the Stations.
Maksymowicz has exhibited her work in New York City, as well as in
college, university and nonprofit galleries throughout the United States
and abroad. She is a past recipient of a National Endowment for the
Arts fellowship in sculpture and has other grants and well as several
honors and awards.
Her sculptures on display at the national shrine are replicas of
Stations she created a number years ago for St. Thomas Episcopal Church
in Lancaster. The church commissioned the pieces.
"This is actually the first major commission that I have ever gotten. It
was a dream commission. They were so open, the community at St.
Thomas," she said.
"St. Thomas had a competition and I won. The reason I applied was
because it was socially concerned work that was also in line with
Catholic doctrine," she explained. "I teach at college in Lancaster and I
made a proposal to do body casting and they loved it. They also agreed
to allow me to make a second set of the Stations and that's the set that
I tour with."
The immediate response to her work at St. Thomas was very positive. "The
community loved it and it's up right now in Lancaster. I'm delighted
they allowed me to cast a second set," she said.
Receiving the commission from St. Thomas was a delight for the veteran artist.
"When I was a kid, I loved art, I loved to draw, and my mom taught me to draw," she told CNS.
"I didn't expect to go to college -- there was no money in the family.
But back then, college was free. My mom said, 'Great! Wonderful, you can
go to college!' I decided I was going to study something I love. I love
art."
In 1973, she received a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Brooklyn
College of the City University of New York. In 1977, she earned a
master's of fine arts in visual arts from the University of California
at San Diego.
Maksymowicz has been a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome,
an artist-in-residence at the Powel House Museum in Philadelphia, and a
fellow at the Vermont Studio Center. She is currently an associate
professor of art at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.