Bound by rope at his wrists, Thomas McPherson, the executive director of the Collective in Sedona, found himself suspended upon a cross, reenacting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. From his long, dark hair that draped from behind his shoulder to cloak his face, to his piercing blue eyes and defined anatomical figure, McPherson was the model Sedona sculptor James Muir was looking for to create the “Christ of the Holy Cross,” a commissioned bronze sculpture for the Chapel of the Holy Cross.

It was from the first moment when McPherson was cast upon a cross that the beginning of a two-year artistic journey commenced, one that would bring together people from all walks of life, putting religious identification and philosophies aside.

From the time of conception to the adding of final touches to the sculpture, McPherson was present for much of the journey, and Muir noted McPherson would lend himself to him as much as possible.

“We heard about this fellow [McPherson], and so we went down to meet him, and it was literally like seeing the Christ. I mean he had the long hair, the beard, the eyes were incredibly penetrating, blue eyes. We told him what we needed, and he was willing to do it. He made himself available and sometimes could only break loose for 20 to 30 minutes, but I needed that,” Muir said.

McPherson’s commitment to the project became apparent through the measures he went to so Muir could make his vision come to life like his willingness to hang his body upon the cross to be “crucified.”

Muir’s attention to detail and accuracy is also demonstrated during this stage of study. To make sure the sculpture would shine through with life, Muir studied McPherson’s anatomy vein by vein, muscle by muscle to be able to depict that level of life throughout the sculpture, head to toe.

“What he had to go through, we literally had to crucify him. We literally had to hang him. He didn’t have any ounce of fat on him, so he was like an anatomy chart, and so I was able to capture the anatomy,” Muir said. “What happens to the anatomy when you’re literally hung on a cross, and you’re not adjusting, just hanging there where you don’t have a perfect six pack, abs and so on and so forth because he’s twisted up there, and that throws all the anatomy off, and I had to capture every single bit of that to make it really read.”

Coming Together Piece by Piece

Also accompanying Muir throughout this journey was Father Kieran Kleczewski, the custodian of the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Each conversation the two had was just as crucial as the last to push the creation of the 33-foot sculpture forward, right down to small considerations like the measurements of the doorway at the Chapel of the Holy Cross to ensure the sculpture could fit through its archways.

“Even as the piece was progressing, James would call me up and we would exchange ideas,” Kleczewski said. “So, this piece really evolved out of conversations that we have had over two years. This is an absolutely incredible, beautiful piece.”

Now, nearly two years later, Kleczewski and Muir are at journey’s end to the sculpture, and as they envision what it will look like in the chapel for the very first time, they reminisce back to the drawing board days, when the sculpture was just a thought on how to enhance Marguerite Brunswig Staude’s vision for the chapel.

“It had to be site specific, obviously,” Muir said. “Every measurement on the piece there is a reason why it is there. It has some spiritual meaning to it as well as literal, but that had to be dovetailed into the restrictions, so to speak, on how much it could support weight-wise, how it was going to be done. It’s just under 2,400 pounds. The piece had to be in pieces; originally, it was something like 82, 83, 84 molds — separate pieces. There are basically I think seven pieces that will fit together like a jigsaw. The Christ itself is too big to be in one piece and way too much to lift it up in one piece, so that had to be engineered in sections.”

When determining the subject matter for the sculpture, Kleczewski and Muir set in stone a vision of a living Christ crucified upon the Tree of Life, which depicts humanity’s journey from its fall in the Garden of Eden to redemption by God’s hand.

While the Tree of Life is a common Christian image, Muir and Kleczewski expressed similar sentiments in that the statue is bound to no one or one thing.

“If you look at the face of this piece, it is an incredibly beautiful face of love,” Kleczewski said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re Christian, Buddhist, atheist, it doesn’t matter what your religion affiliation …. I just think that [for] everybody that enters this space it’s going to be an incredibly powerful encounter, and that’s what I really think is the amazing thing about this piece.”

Muir also noted the spiritual incentives of many people involved, which was necessary to bring the project to fruition. He also said the sculpture was not about self, and each benchmark he had set throughout the project required circling back to preserving religious and historical context to ensure that the sculpture was the best it could be for the community.

“It’s about doing something that is going to outlast and outlive all of us, and so I strive to that attitude,” Muir said. “It’s got to have some kind of impact, and that’s what I tried to incorporate into the piece, into the look of the piece, into the action of the piece and the symbolism ….This Christ is still alive, his eyes are open and deliberately so. He is looking a certain way, he’s got a certain look, a certain expression on his face. His mouth, his eyes, his nose, everything is to capture a dual expression. I did the best I could to put the expression in him not of agony and pain.”

When looking to the statue, one can begin to distinguish symbolic elements, and Muir noted two in particular being the left hand of the statue with one finger raised for the first commandment and the right hand, which is coming down and gesturing with two fingers raised to the spectators that stand at its feet, which represents the second commandment.

Regardless of what religion, philosophical or cultural perspective people take on the statue, Muir noted that it can serve a universal purpose in evoking people to think about the self, their journey and a piece to find solace in one way or another.

With the 1st Friday artwalk just weeks away, on Friday, April 6, Muir does not shy away from his feelings of anxiety over how the sculpture will be mounted in the chapel for the first time — another first for him being that it will also be the first he will see the sculpture in situ.

Muir and Kleczewski have chosen to add another element to the statue that will enhance its purpose two steps more, literally, as two bronze foot castings will be put in to the floor of the chapel at the feet of the Christ statue.

“If everything goes to plan, we will actually have bronze foot casting, footprints will be stepped into the floor, and if you stand in those then the Christ will be looking you directly in the eyes,” Kleczewsk said.

And just like that, a two year journey is coming to an end, and soon people from all walks of life can continue to enjoy the chapel in an enhanced way to Staude’s original vision — following in the footsteps of Christ as he looks down from above. 

Makenna Lepowsky can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 126, or email mlepowsky@larsonnewspapers.com