Images for Holy Week

We were in Kleinberg Ontario on Saturday for a visit to the McMichael Gallery, one of this province's treasures. We didn't want to miss the exhibit of work by Mary Pratt, http://www.mcmichael.com/marypratt/  along with a companion exhibit of Newfoundland artists called Changing Tides. http://www.mcmichael.com/changingtides/

I must admit that I haven't been a big fan of Pratt's paintings because I find them too pristine and everyday in their subject matter. Well, I now have a different perspective on her body of work and I'm glad that we got to see both exhibits.

Several of Pratt's images caught my attention including the two I have included here. They were meditations for Holy Week. The informality of Supper Table was an invitation to view the Last Supper of Maundy Thursday as both a regular meal and sacrament. Our attendance as a Passover seder on Monday evening was a pleasant experience of "give and take" even as made our way through the stirring words of the Haggadah.

Service Station is as raw a crucifixion as any created with the intention of depicting Jesus' last hours and execution. If the words "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me" were inscribed beneath this painting if would be no more clear for me. I appreciate that we don't all see images in the same way, and I might not have viewed them this way at another time of the year. But they were powerful on Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday.



Thoughts?