Stations Journal Journey #21

September 9, 2025.

With Station #8 complete, I have now caught up to Station #9, which was the one I made as an experiment/test  in 2017, first exhibited in Vancouver, B.C. at the Anglican Foundation’s show ‘infinite’, and the one that led to being offered a whole show in January of 2026. So guess what? We are now creating Station #10! It is well in hand and coming together nicely.

Station #10 depicts Jesus being stripped of his garments. One of the sentences that comes back to me from the reflection by Rev. Gerald Donnelly is that “there is no greater ignominy than to be naked before one’s enemies”. Pick someone in your life who feels like an ‘other’ at times…and imagine yourself naked standing before them. Of course, even fully clothed there are moments when we attempt to stand in our full truth as Christians, artists, or non-violent lovers of all things, and that can also be an exercise in feeling vulnerably naked.

As bright as some of this series has been, this one has a paleness, and I have been able to utilize many fabrics I otherwise would not with grey undertones. I don't think I’ve written about the fabric I’ve used each time for Jesus’ tunic. I was given this beautiful linen from a friend. But using the linen, new, just didn’t make sense to me. Too sterile for a man who falls, carries a wooden cross, bleeds, quite possibly is whipped, and who knows what else? So in 2017 I stain-dyed a piece of this fabric to use for Station #9. I stained it with tea bags, paint, and some dirt. I’ve been able to use this stained fabric from #5 on, but only the dregs are left now! It frays beautifully and I’m choosing to leave some of the edges of these pieces, on this station about the tunic, raw. Fully adhered, but raw.

Another challenge I’ve had with each consecutive Station has been to choose the skin tones. When I designed the series between 2009 and 2016, the perspective I had on the skin tones of Jesus and the other people depicted was only my own - as a person with pale skin. Now my eyes have been opened, realizing of course that this perspective may not only be inaccurate where those in this story are concerned, but also that all the steps I have taken to make an inclusive project exclude others who God made with darker skin (and the way the world is for them). Over recent years I have gone from being ashamed of how I created these designs to being honest about my own human failings where this is concerned. As I struggled to know what fabrics to use for each Station in turn, with new eyes, I followed my artistic instincts, allowing some to be pure white in reflection of light, and others to be various skin tone shades. 

As I contemplated this piece and the four hands which hold Jesus and strip off his clothes, I wrestled with the darker shades I had contrasted Jesus’ bluish and anemic colouring with. My studio assistant suggested using a colour that is not a skin colour at all - and that’s what I have done. The four hands are olive green. So far people who have looked at this piece in production have not registered the green as green. It is not distracting, but neither do I wish it to be insulting in any way.

I trust that I am on a road that allows this to be a conversation, this one of skin colour and the ways this causes us to see and be seen. The power of the Gospel and this project is beyond race. I pray that it engages people deeply regardless, that it brings them closer to God and to their sacred longings. This is what I trust for today.