Work in progress: "St. Hubert of Liege"...

As mentioned a couple of posts ago, I am a frequent thrifter, and today I struck gold at Value Village - I found this for $10.99, and got the mad idea to make a piece of ironic Catholic art referencing St. Hubert of Liege, the patron saint of hunters.  I decided I was going to take it home, prime the back with black paint, and add a crucifix to it.  The more I thought about it, I began to laugh, because according to his story, he was about to kill a stag, while hunting, when a crucifix appeared above its antlers, and he was instructed to convert to the faith by a voice.  He later became a bishop.

This piece is ridiculous, because it suggests that not only did he kill the stag anyway, he made a trophy out of it to honour the incident, but what it really suggests is the crimes of religion, where Catholics use the name of Jesus to create suffering in the world.  (I must emphasize that this has nothing to do with the saint himself, it's a cartoonist's wit making a statement about corruption in religion, using strange Catholic kitsch.)

So far, I have the base painted, the crucifix attached and gold leafed, and the front and sides varnished.  It's drying in the bathtub overnight - later, when I re-attach the antlers, I will be adding an old wooden rosary that will hang from their base.

Recently, there was a modified found art show at Northern Contemporary - too bad I missed it, I would have put this piece in, I'm hoping there will be similar shows in the future.  I have to see how it looks put together, but I might price it at $700.00.

Another piece I am going to get started on soon is an illustration of Dionysus that I want to enter into another Northern Contemporary show called "All You Can Eat", which is food themed.  I just need to find the right canvas for it - I want another big solid one, so I can price the piece higher.

-Saraƒin