In 1983, at 29
years of age, John Cobb finished a painting of a priest he started while
attending St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. He had been dealing
with the aftermath of a failed marriage and was in what he called "a
dark place." The priest had helped him start the process of emerging
from his depression and rediscovering his faith. Five years earlier,
Cobb had been granted permission to paint a mural covering the interior
of Chapel on the Dunes, in Port Aransas, Texas. Inspired by that
experience, when painting the priest he experienced a calling to create
a second chapel, one that would house a series of paintings expressing
faith-related experiences. After 41 years, Cobb has declared The Chapel
complete. Valley House is pleased to present this monumental tribute to
divine devotion.
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gold leaf on panel
The creative & magnificent Kingdom based on kindness
Above
the Crucifix on the "iconostasis" that is planned, sits the Father. I
wanted Him to be stern and yet compassionate, and I found my man in
Father James Martin, CSC.
His
Dad was a steel worker in Pittsburg, a tough fellow to deal with. Father
Martin seems to have succeeded in both forgiving and being forgiven. On
this, the other side of that, there is a real kindness, sincere and
palpable. A kindness I am not sure everyone has known, but some of his
Holy Cross Brothers do.
I have Him surrounded by some of His works, the Jesus portrait by Bellini in Ft. Worth, a black chicken named Chiken-Hawk, 2 homeless-praying and holding a squirming child, a young architect, a Holy worker in Cambodia, an aloof Indian child-owed, incidentally, a great deal.
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My holy spot on the earth where the soul may be re-tuned
The
original intention of this painting changed. At first it would have
shown Mary, Joseph, Jesus and John, on vacation. There have been so many
interpretations on the early life of Jesus, I just wanted to give them a
break. This simple idea, however, morphed into a full scale drama.
Tina
and I spent our special times away from the world by escaping to St.
Joseph Island, building our shelter from found materials on the beach.
Stuff that washed up-
International
waterway markers, timbers from far away Mexico, all kinds of falderal
which we could assemble into a shelter. We thoroughly enjoyed these
early Spring days, 4 or 5 days tucked away from cars and busy demands. I
did sketches of our habitation and lolled around in the surf. This is
where the painting began.
Facing
us on our return, some weeks later, Tina's Daddy passed away on Good
Friday. The expression of Tina on the left side of the painting is one
of tragedy, the jutting harpoon, the colored cloak. Our generous and
hopeful life turns ever so quickly, perhaps, just as it had for Mary,
and the passion of the cross for Jesus.
But,
now, we are happy, together in our refuge from the world. Well prepared,
Joseph is seen fishing, the provider he was. She has loaded up all her
kitchen paraphernalia-
a large tub of water, hats, ropes, and gear. The timing had to be just
right for the heavily loaded 12' skiff, it could easily swamp on the
journey around the jetties. There was probably only 3" of gunwale left.
One had to remain wise.
Well,
it was done, only a single horrific act to come. I put the painting on a
couple of saw horses and cut it in half. The right hand panel became the
"sinner" with the hand of the Angel upon him. On the left was the newly
painted seascape with its signal flag for the warning of an approaching
hurricane. This new triptych is the multiple realm of this innocent
child. May our little boats find refuge in Him.
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gold leaf on panel
Commitment to order and the repudiation of the world
There was a black woman uncommonly found in a preponderantly white cathedral who could sing with the most sonorous voice, just a true depth. I wanted to know how this came to be and why, and so I did. She is now the Nun she wanted to be and is way up in San Cristobal somewhere as a Carmelite, with a voice that only God knows now. Her Priest and the Monks had a large ceremony inside the Church there, but I changed the setting to the environs of Enchanted Rock, perhaps closer in theme to Mt. Carmel.
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gold leaf on panel
An ikon on the nature of belief and each individual's participation in
it
Part
of the creed that we say by rote every Sunday is a short description
that allows for the mystery of our beliefs. Not an ironclad resolve, or
a willy-nilly panacea, this creed can be so ultimately requiring and yet
blithely said each week, and...
interpreted so differently for each person.
Here is a scene in which 2 "archetypes" are portrayed, the one of a
romantic disposition, seeing and feeling, confirmed by actualities and
sensations, often of the regions of Italy or Greece, or Spain. The other
person is of an intellectual persuasion, the Northern Germanic, finding
meaning in the secondary resources of books and pedagogy. Both are
believing, all of us a mixture of one or the other. It is no wonder that
the complexities of mankind find it difficult the acceptance of general
descriptions of belief. Sometimes only the changing of a heart the
determining factor, and at other times, long study and contemplation.
The model for Jesus was a well-proportioned swimmer, lean, fit, pretty
darned perfect, and found ascending in suffering---beyond the scenes
chaos, and into the order of Heaven. Pizza Mike is the "good" thief",
formerly known to be found panhandling at Riverside and Pleasant Valley.
The unseeing scholar is LJ, a scripture study teacher at St. Mary's
Cathedral. The dolly is a symbol of the weight of some of these matters,
somehow not to be lifted without the necessary tools.
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gold leaf on panel
The preparation & introspection of mortal beings for the great
unknown
Brother
Andrew was a Holy Cross Brother and a Bro. Superior, quiet and outwardly
stern. But that deep inner discipline seemed to gauge everything before
his actually saying anything. He taught literature at St. Edward's
University and especially enjoyed working through "J Alfred Prufrock's
Love Poem", and the "Waste Land", with his students. T S Eliot in his
intellectual battle with Christianity and contention with Ezra Pound
gave rise to a very complex diorama, and quite a fertile field for
discussion. I had no doubt in that imbued authority, that Bro. Andrew
could handle any queries.
The Ikon depicts two Holy Cross religious, Bro. Thomas and Sr. Olivia,
bringing Holy Communion at a nursing home in South Austin as he
approaches death. The religious brother and sister have brought him the
consecrated Eucharist host bearing the body and blood of Christ. It is
his "viaticum", the provision for his ultimate journey into eternal
life.
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A
figure of order & good government, representative of the 24 Elders
in Heaven.
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A homeless man with nothing, dressed in animal skins---a signboard for
John the Baptist.
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Mr. Brown the
water well driller from New Mex., praying in repentance, and standing in
for St. Peter.
egg tempera and gold leaf on panel
My fellow janitor at DPS, Austin, in the days of their separatist thinking. She did the toilets & I did the floors.
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Ms. Gerla darned the curtains for her conductor husband on the Kingsville train to the valley.
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The ghost of a lost brother returns to console, from a poem by Rumi. God as a Friend, & not a hand of anger.
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The cows beloved Shepherd sets the stage for the Manger of the Lord, and
the sacrifice----today, now.
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tempera and gold leaf on panel
The woe of realization, that upon our record stands the responsibility of all that we have done, good or bad.
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The Blessed
Mother, as a child, sees her future on the flight into Egypt, a
premonition.
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Faith as Señora Soliz, and reason as my teacher Mother, Mrs Cleo Cobb
McGee.
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All my surfing
friends and even plumbers, collude in this mastery over water and its'
possible death- Baptism and new life & cleansing.
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Jesse, our
treasure of joy in a perilous life, he got spinal meningitis at the
public clinic as a baby.
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The adored Santo
Niño of Mexico, here portrayed not as the Spanish blond, blue-eyed
child, but dark and more like his devotees.
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This hovel I built
on Francis Simnachers farm for the Saints roadside prayers. The only
self portrait in the series (as Bro. Leo).
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The complex
scenario of exclusion, or denial, when it comes to the carrying of the
cross.
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The lightest and
the best of who we are is carried up to Heaven with the Lord.
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Machismo is the
present running proposition in the Hispanic community, here, though, she
exhibits the greater power in her candy-striper hospital skirt.
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Dark and deep go
the roads beneath the ground, the innocent and the gracious our only
respite.
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So, in the face of
consuming fire what will stand, surely the Spirit of God.
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This beautiful person did not take part in the usual throes of
adolescent life, she served the Eucharist at Our Lady of Guadalupe
Church.