A STATEMENT FROM THE ARTIST CAMILLA BRUNSCHWYLER ARMSTRONG

Walking and meditating on these 14 images is about connecting. It is an invitation to relate more deeply and viscerally with the story of Christ’s journey through his suffering, death, and resurrection, as well as a way to come face to face with the flaws and virtues in our own character.

Personally, the stations are about being called to greater love, greater empathy, and greater compassion, for myself and for my fellowman. However, each time I meditate with them, new awarenesses emerge, and I am both convicted and blessed in new ways.

Walking these stations is a dynamic and every changing journey of growth, connection, and revelation.

THE CREATIVE JOURNEY

In September of 2014, I was Invited by Reverend Candace Frazer, to create a set of stations of the cross for my church, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Wisely and gracefully, I was given no perameters in terms of style, imagery, or design. This kind of creative freedom was both daunting and exciting. I entered into the creative process with excitement, humility, and some trepidation. With no imposed limitations, I would have to confront my own.

As I began the ideating and conceptualizing state in the creation of these images, two concepts emerged. The imagery was to be evocative and simple. I also knew that they would be oil paintings on linen, and that the imagery would be more metaphorical and symbolic, than the literal scenes I had grown up with as a young Catholic girl in Montgomery, Alabama. And so, the visualization and preparation process had begun. Over the next year, I fully immersed myself in the story. I studied the scriptures, various liturgies, the writings of different theologians, looked at contemporary and traditional visual interpretations of the stations, and researched universal and Christian symbology.

Once the images I wanted to use began to manifest, I had to decide how to best construct the way the images would be displayed. They needed to be portable, both free-standing and mountable, and most importantly for me, I wanted them to be congruous with the architecture and iconography of this 160 year old holy space. I wanted them to be as ‘new but familiar threads, gently woven into the already existing rich tapestry’ of St. John’s.

On Good Friday, March 25, 2016, these stations were first used in a community service in the sanctuary of St. John’s Church. In April, they were hung in St. John’s Chapel where they now reside.