Advisor: Isak Berbic

Practice What You Preach – Truths Illuminated

Historically, stained glass windows have told stories of the past. These stories were represented primarily with imagery and (sometimes with) limited text.  In the Bible, the number three represents divine wholeness, completeness and perfection. This idea and aesthetic is in contrast with the subject matter represented. This series of (3) windows raise awareness and make public social injustices affecting people in our society. The windows are framed with decorative wood and lit from within, to give the feeling of a window in a house of worship – a place where people preach. The windows are lit from behind the glass, illuminating images and text that highlight the social issue presented.

EQUALITY – based on women’s injustices with symbolic images of diverse women in the foreground. In the background there are depictions of paintings where images of women in the nude are among men fully clothed showing how women were often portrayed as soft objects. There is also an imbalanced scale and a verse from the Declaration of Independence – “all men are created equal”. The top panel is from a scene in the book entitled “The Book of the City of Ladies”, written in the early 1400s. This literary work was written by Christine de Pizan, and meant to educate and raise women’s self esteem, at a time when women were repressed. Around the mirror, to the left, we see the author, surrounded by the book’s protagonists – Lady of Reason, Lady of Rectitude and Lady of Justice.

Title: EQUALITY – Practice What You Preach – Truths Illuminated, Date: May 2020, Dimensions: 14.375”w x 38.5”h x 2.125”d, Medium: Stained glass and wood

TOLERANCE – is based on people who have left their homeland due to dire circumstances. Selecting images to represent the vast number of people whose lives have been uprooted was a difficult task. One panel cannot depict them all, however I’ve attempted to do so with a small number of images – a child and adult with life jackets with words to the left of them – hope, liberty, freedom, a woman covering her face with a headdress, a child gazing, and a scene of a refugee camp. The top is has a chain-link fence over the statue of liberty. The dress worn by the woman with the headdress has verses from the poem entitled “Refugee Blues”. Though this poem was about the plight of Jewish refugees in the 1930s, the sentiments resonate today.

Here is the full poem:

Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.

Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Look in the atlas and you’ll find it there:
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.

In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Every spring it blossoms anew;
Old passports can’t do that, my dear, old passports can’t do that.

The consul banged the table and said:
‘If you’ve got no passport, you’re officially dead’;
But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.

Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
Asked me politely to return next year:
But where shall we go today, my dear, but where shall we go today?

Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said:
‘If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread’;
He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.

Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
It was Hitler over Europe, saying: ‘They must die’;
We were in his mind, my dear, we were in his mind.

Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
But they weren’t German Jews, my dear, but they weren’t German Jews.

Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay,
Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.

Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;
They had no politicians and sang at their ease:
They weren’t the human race, my dear, they weren’t the human race.

Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
A thousand windows and a thousand doors;
Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.

Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.

Title: TOLERANCE – Practice What You Preach – Truths Illuminated, Date: April 2021, Dimensions: 14.375”w x 38.5”h x 2.125”d, Medium: Stained glass and wood

EMPATHY – based on mental health issues. The top has an illustration of a figure looking off in the distance. Around the mirror is a circle of text that tell of feelings and obstacles people are faced with: I want help – we are no longer taking new patients – I need help -I have no insurance. The lower portion of the window symbolizes the myriad of feelings that can trap us and make us feel isolated. The maze has words throughout – i’m tired, overwhelmed, I’m tired, anxious, I’m tired, afraid.

Title: EMPATHY – Practice What You Preach – Truths Illuminated, Date: April 2021, Dimensions: 14.375”w x 38.5”h x 2.125”d, Medium: Stained glass and wood

In all windows, the top mirror is for the viewer to self reflect.

A detailed step by step blog can be viewed here: https://gallerycinthia.blogspot.com/