BERKELEY, CA -- April 26, 2007 -- Art that shows Jesus as gay or female has been censored, but now these stunning images by 11 artists fill a beautifully illustrated new art book.
Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More by Kittredge Cherry is packed with color images by 11 contemporary artists from the United States and Europe. Their art shines a spiritual light on justice for women and LGBT people.
The book will be launched at the National Festival of Progressive Spiritual Art in Taos, NM, on May 11-12. An online gallery of selected images from the book has just been added to Cherry’s website, JesusInLove.org.
“Christ belongs to everyone,” says Cherry, an art historian and lesbian Christian author. “The gay Jesus and the woman Christ are here to free and empower people who feel left out when Jesus is presented as a straight man.”
The 11 artists in Art That Dares are a diverse group. They work both inside and outside the church, but all of their art respects the teachings of Jesus.
In the book, the artists tell the stories behind their images, including censorship, hate mail, violence, death threats, and vandalism that destroyed their work. A lively introduction puts the art into political and historical context, exploring issues of blasphemy and artistic freedom.
“These new images are much needed now because Christian rhetoric is used to justify discrimination against women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” Cherry explains.
Explicitly queer Christian imagery in Art That Dares includes photos of Jesus with contemporary LGBT people by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin of Sweden, a 24-panel gay vision of the Passion by New York painter F. Douglas Blanchard, and the notorious “faggot crucifixion” painting by Atlanta’s Becki Jayne Harrelson. Gary Speziale sculpts a sensuous moment between a nude Adam and the new Adam, while Alex Donis shows Jesus kissing a Hindu god.
Female Christ figures in the book range from Edwina Sandys’ famous bronze crucifix Christa to Janet McKenzie’s award-winning Jesus of the People, which Sister Wendy of PBS chose to represent Christ in the new millennium. Jill Ansell and Sandra Yagi use the symbolism of the cross to explore the suffering of women.
Cherry operates JesusInLove.org, which offers spiritual resources for LGBT people and their allies. She was at the forefront of the sexuality debate at the National Council of Churches (USA) and the World Council of Churches as National Ecumenical Officer for Metropolitan Community Churches. She holds degrees in journalism, art history, and religion.
Cherry’s other books include Jesus in Love, Hide and Speak, Equal Rites and Womanword. The New York Times Book Review praised her “very graceful, erudite” writing style.
Art That Dares (ISBN 1-933993-29-4) is published by AndroGyne Press, a new queer studies press in Berkeley, CA. Ingram Book Group distributes it.
For more information, contact info@JesusInLove.org or publisher@androgynepress.com, or visit: JesusInLove.org or AndroGynePress.com.
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Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More
By Kittredge Cherry
Publisher: AndroGyne Press
Paperback with color images: 100 pages
Dimensions: 8.5 x 11 inches
Price: $38.95
ISBN: 1-933993-29-4
Publication date: Sept. 1, 2007
Distributed by: Ingram Book Group
Showing posts with label painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label painting. Show all posts
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Gay Jesus Website Sparks Easter Controversy (4/14/06)
LOS ANGELES, CA – April 14, 2006 – Blogs are buzzing over gay Jesus art as Easter approaches.
Debate was sparked by JesusInLove.org, a new website featuring gay and lesbian Christian art. The Easter controversy has focused on an image with a sign saying “faggot” on the cross above Christ.
“Every time a gay gets bashed, Jesus is crucified again,” said Kittredge Cherry, lesbian author and founder of the new website. “The anti-gay movement uses religion to justify discrimination, so even atheists can see the value in uprooting homophobia from Christian tradition.”
While most applaud the website, some right-wing Christians have objected with online posts such as “That is sick and disgusting. We need to get on track with eliminating the choice of homosexuality.”
On the other hand, some gay visitors posted critiques such as, “I don’t understand why any gay person would support, let alone condone organized religion.”
Artists who dare to put the Easter story in a queer context have had their work destroyed -- if they can find a way to exhibit it at all. Now these powerful images are available for all to see at JesusInLove.org.
A high-tech slide show takes visitors through the Easter story from a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender viewpoint at http://jesusinlove.org/prayf.php. It includes the following:
*The crucified Christ is labeled “faggot” in a painting by Becki Jayne Harrelson.
*The female Christ dies on the cross while her purse is looted by the Pope, a businessman and a terrorist in a work by Sandra Yagi.
*The dead Christ is revived by a female Holy Spirit in Harrelson’s “Resurrection.”
*The risen Christ approaches hand-in-hand with his male lover in “Jesus Rises” by F. Douglas Blanchard.
“The Easter story is important for LGBT people. It tells us that God suffers with us, and it offers the promise of rebirth and redemption,” Cherry explained.
A recent review of JesusInLove.org by online magazine QueerDay.com called the site “a rather heavenly idea.”
JesusInLove.org features work by six contemporary American artists and an impressive links page that connects with many other artists worldwide who picture Christ as gay or female.
The history behind the queer Christ is fleshed out in a variety of new books listed at JesusInLove.org. The site also offers a sneak preview of Kittredge Cherry’s forthcoming fictional autobiography of the queer Christ, “Jesus in Love.”
For more information, contact JesusInLoveInfo@aol.com or visit http://jesusinlove.org/prayf.php
###
Debate was sparked by JesusInLove.org, a new website featuring gay and lesbian Christian art. The Easter controversy has focused on an image with a sign saying “faggot” on the cross above Christ.
“Every time a gay gets bashed, Jesus is crucified again,” said Kittredge Cherry, lesbian author and founder of the new website. “The anti-gay movement uses religion to justify discrimination, so even atheists can see the value in uprooting homophobia from Christian tradition.”
While most applaud the website, some right-wing Christians have objected with online posts such as “That is sick and disgusting. We need to get on track with eliminating the choice of homosexuality.”
On the other hand, some gay visitors posted critiques such as, “I don’t understand why any gay person would support, let alone condone organized religion.”
Artists who dare to put the Easter story in a queer context have had their work destroyed -- if they can find a way to exhibit it at all. Now these powerful images are available for all to see at JesusInLove.org.
A high-tech slide show takes visitors through the Easter story from a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender viewpoint at http://jesusinlove.org/prayf.php. It includes the following:
*The crucified Christ is labeled “faggot” in a painting by Becki Jayne Harrelson.
*The female Christ dies on the cross while her purse is looted by the Pope, a businessman and a terrorist in a work by Sandra Yagi.
*The dead Christ is revived by a female Holy Spirit in Harrelson’s “Resurrection.”
*The risen Christ approaches hand-in-hand with his male lover in “Jesus Rises” by F. Douglas Blanchard.
“The Easter story is important for LGBT people. It tells us that God suffers with us, and it offers the promise of rebirth and redemption,” Cherry explained.
A recent review of JesusInLove.org by online magazine QueerDay.com called the site “a rather heavenly idea.”
JesusInLove.org features work by six contemporary American artists and an impressive links page that connects with many other artists worldwide who picture Christ as gay or female.
The history behind the queer Christ is fleshed out in a variety of new books listed at JesusInLove.org. The site also offers a sneak preview of Kittredge Cherry’s forthcoming fictional autobiography of the queer Christ, “Jesus in Love.”
For more information, contact JesusInLoveInfo@aol.com or visit http://jesusinlove.org/prayf.php
###
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Queer Easter Surprise: Gay Jesus on the Cross (March 28, 2006)
LOS ANGELES, CA -- March 28, 2006 -- A sign saying “faggot” hangs on the cross above Christ at JesusInLove.org, the first website to focus on the queer Christ.
“Every time a gay gets bashed, Jesus is crucified again,” said Kittredge Cherry, lesbian author and founder of the new website. “The anti-gay movement uses religion to justify discrimination, so even atheists can see the value in uprooting homophobia from Christian tradition.”
Artists who dare to put the Easter story in a queer context have had their work destroyed -- if they can find a way to exhibit it at all. Now these powerful images are available for all to see at JesusInLove.org.
A high-tech slide show takes visitors through the Easter story from a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender viewpoint at JesusInLove.org’s “Pray with Us” page. It includes the following:
*The crucified Christ is labeled “faggot” in a painting by Becki Jayne Harrelson.
*The female Christ dies on the cross while her purse is looted by the Pope, a businessman and a terrorist in a work by Sandra Yagi.
*The dead Christ is revived by a female Holy Spirit in Harrelson’s “Resurrection.”
*The risen Christ approaches hand-in-hand with his male lover in “Jesus Rises” by F. Douglas Blanchard.
“The Easter story is important for LGBT people. It tells us that God suffers with us, and it offers the promise of rebirth and redemption,” Cherry explained.
A recent review of JesusInLove.org by online magazine QueerDay.com called the site “a rather heavenly idea.”
JesusInLove.org features work by six contemporary American artists and an impressive links page that connects with many other artists worldwide who picture Christ as gay or female.
The history behind the queer Christ is fleshed out in a variety of new books listed at JesusInLove.org. The site also offers a sneak preview of Kittredge Cherry’s forthcoming fictional autobiography of the queer Christ, “Jesus in Love.”
For more information, contact JesusInLoveInfo@aol.com or visit JesusInLove.org.
###
“Every time a gay gets bashed, Jesus is crucified again,” said Kittredge Cherry, lesbian author and founder of the new website. “The anti-gay movement uses religion to justify discrimination, so even atheists can see the value in uprooting homophobia from Christian tradition.”
Artists who dare to put the Easter story in a queer context have had their work destroyed -- if they can find a way to exhibit it at all. Now these powerful images are available for all to see at JesusInLove.org.
A high-tech slide show takes visitors through the Easter story from a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender viewpoint at JesusInLove.org’s “Pray with Us” page. It includes the following:
*The crucified Christ is labeled “faggot” in a painting by Becki Jayne Harrelson.
*The female Christ dies on the cross while her purse is looted by the Pope, a businessman and a terrorist in a work by Sandra Yagi.
*The dead Christ is revived by a female Holy Spirit in Harrelson’s “Resurrection.”
*The risen Christ approaches hand-in-hand with his male lover in “Jesus Rises” by F. Douglas Blanchard.
“The Easter story is important for LGBT people. It tells us that God suffers with us, and it offers the promise of rebirth and redemption,” Cherry explained.
A recent review of JesusInLove.org by online magazine QueerDay.com called the site “a rather heavenly idea.”
JesusInLove.org features work by six contemporary American artists and an impressive links page that connects with many other artists worldwide who picture Christ as gay or female.
The history behind the queer Christ is fleshed out in a variety of new books listed at JesusInLove.org. The site also offers a sneak preview of Kittredge Cherry’s forthcoming fictional autobiography of the queer Christ, “Jesus in Love.”
For more information, contact JesusInLoveInfo@aol.com or visit JesusInLove.org.
###
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Lesbian Artists Transform Christmas Legend (12/7/05)
LOS ANGELES, CA – Dec. 7, 2005 -- Lesbian artists are transforming the Christmas story by showing the baby Jesus with two moms.
“It’s important for queer people to see ourselves in the stories that shape our culture, especially at Christmastime when many of us feel isolated from holiday traditions,” said Kittredge Cherry, founder of JesusInLove.org, the first website focused on LGBT Christian art. “Lesbian artists are redefining the Holy Family as two women with the baby Jesus.”
A prime example is “Madonna, Lover and Son” by Becki Jayne Harrelson, which includes a turkey baster hidden in the bushes. Most galleries are afraid to exhibit this lesbian Christmas image, but JesusInLove.org displays the controversial painting on its links page.
“Lesbians can relate to the myth of Mary’s virgin birth because we use artificial insemination to have babies without heterosexual sex,” Cherry explained.
JesusInLove.org’s impressive links page also connects with “Alternative Conceptions” by Nancy Duff. Her “corrective painting” adds a pair of lesbian moms to Leonardo DaVinci’s classic portrait of the baby Jesus with his mother and grandmother.
Cherry points out that pro-woman views of the virgin birth go back at least as far as the famous 1851 speech by abolitionist Sojourner Truth. “Where did your Christ come from?” Truth asked. “From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.”
The theology behind the lesbian Madonna is explored in a variety of new books listed at JesusInLove.org. They include a sneak preview of Kittredge Cherry’s forthcoming fictional autobiography of the queer Christ, “Jesus in Love.”
For more information, contact JesusInLoveInfo@aol.com or visit http://www.JesusInLove.org.
###
“It’s important for queer people to see ourselves in the stories that shape our culture, especially at Christmastime when many of us feel isolated from holiday traditions,” said Kittredge Cherry, founder of JesusInLove.org, the first website focused on LGBT Christian art. “Lesbian artists are redefining the Holy Family as two women with the baby Jesus.”
A prime example is “Madonna, Lover and Son” by Becki Jayne Harrelson, which includes a turkey baster hidden in the bushes. Most galleries are afraid to exhibit this lesbian Christmas image, but JesusInLove.org displays the controversial painting on its links page.
“Lesbians can relate to the myth of Mary’s virgin birth because we use artificial insemination to have babies without heterosexual sex,” Cherry explained.
JesusInLove.org’s impressive links page also connects with “Alternative Conceptions” by Nancy Duff. Her “corrective painting” adds a pair of lesbian moms to Leonardo DaVinci’s classic portrait of the baby Jesus with his mother and grandmother.
Cherry points out that pro-woman views of the virgin birth go back at least as far as the famous 1851 speech by abolitionist Sojourner Truth. “Where did your Christ come from?” Truth asked. “From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.”
The theology behind the lesbian Madonna is explored in a variety of new books listed at JesusInLove.org. They include a sneak preview of Kittredge Cherry’s forthcoming fictional autobiography of the queer Christ, “Jesus in Love.”
For more information, contact JesusInLoveInfo@aol.com or visit http://www.JesusInLove.org.
###
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