Personal Work- Evolution of Image
A while ago, I posted information about the Damien Portfolio the Honolulu Printmakers will be showing in October at Cathedral Gallery in Honolulu to celebrate the canonization of Father Damien DeVeuster. I’d been struggling for some time in coming up with an image idea I was excited about in moving forward with my print.
Because I work at a private Catholic high school of the Sacred Hearts order (Father Damien’s order), I was exposed to some additional information about Father Damien during our faculty retreat the week before school started. A priest that used to teach at Damien Memorial School (Catholic School for boys in Honolulu) came to share with us about Damien’s life. It was after the priest’s presentation that I found my moment of inspiration.
Father Damien was known for his benevolent works in a colony of Hansen’s disease (leprosy) patients on Kalaupapa on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. When he first traveled to the colony, it was a place of lawlessness and despair. Damien helped build the first hospital, cemetery, & church there, and helped design an aquifer system to bring water down the cliff-side that separates this peninsula from the rest of Molokai. Because of all his carpentry work, Damien’s hands were always cut. He continually anointed the wounds of the Kalaupapa community and shared food with them, showing little concern for hygiene. Although it is not known exactly how Hansen’s disease is transmitted, long-term contact with those who have the disease usually typifies contraction. Damien, ended up contracting Hansen’s disease and is known for embracing his community with writings that referred to them as “We lepers.”
Based specifically on a story this priest told us at our faculty retreat, my first image idea illustrated a simplified image of Damien handing a child the pipe he was known to carry – a gift used to mask the scent of rotting flesh…I thought this story was interesting for the following reason: according to norms of public conduct & stewardship, most of us might look down on an adult handing a child a pipe, because we assume he is damaging the naive child’s health. In this case, this act typifies the behavior that most likely caused Damien to contract Hansen’s disease…The path of toxicity is actually opposite that which we originally assumed. Before he ever contracted the disease, Damien already acted as one with his community (we lepers). I decided to title the work Peace Pipe (see design below).
Peace Pipe
In the end, I decided it best to avoid the mis-communication and outrage that would inevitably result from the image of Damien passing a pipe to a child. Most people would probably not know the story that had been related to me, nor do most take the time to read signage. So, I changed the pipe into a candle to signify a sense of sharing & community, but also the hope Damien’s work gave to the community of Hansen’s disease patients on Kalaupapa. I changed the title to We lepers.
we lepers
I used to work at a stained glass shop, designing, teaching & fabricating custom work. Because of the traditional ties between stained glass & the church, I chose to print in an aesthetic that gives a similar feel. My image is being printed in screenprint, using various amounts of pigment mixed with transparency on a transluscent, 100% rag vellum. My black outlines resemble the solder lines of stained glass windows, and I’m filling the simplified image areas with hand-rendered & printed textures based on photographs taken at Kalaupapa. This is just computer-based design, compiled from my drawing & photograph textures; the actual print is in production now.
