St. Mary Catholic Church celebrates new sculptures
Mary’s face is of unspeakable majesty and calm and yet her delicate eyes, partly closed, express ineffable compassion and sympathy. Mary is not looking at Jesus, but rather at us, to express compassion for us in our fears, doubts and struggles.
Parishioners at St. Mary Catholic Church in Siloam Springs celebrated the installation of new sculptures from Spain during a special mass on Tuesday.
Three lifelike statues representing the holy family — the Virgin Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus — were unveiled during the ceremony, which also celebrated the Ascension of Mary and the parish’s 33rd anniversary. The sculptures were the creation of artist Angel Pantoja, who lives in the Port of Santa Maria in the Andalusian Province of Spain.
A gasp went up from the congregation when the Knights of Columbus, dressed in full regalia with capes, swords and feathered hats, removed the panels around the sculptures and the audience caught their first glimpse of the statues. After the mass, members of the congregation gathered up front to take pictures of the artwork and visit with the artist.
Father Salvador Marquez-Munoz, priest of St. Mary Catholic Church, noted in his homily introducing the sculptures that “Mary’s face is of unspeakable majesty and calm and yet her delicate eyes, partly closed, express ineffable compassion and sympathy. Mary is not looking at Jesus, but rather at us, to express compassion for us in our fears, doubts and struggles.”
The three statues were created using a traditional process that has been used for centuries in Spain to create very lifelike figures, according to Pantoja. It took nearly two years to bring them to life, he said.
Marquez-Munoz first saw Pantoja’s work on one of his trips to Spain. He contacted the artist on social media and they worked
together to design artwork for the church in Siloam Springs. Last year, Marquez-Munoz traveled to Spain again to approve sketches and clay models of the sculptures.
Once the models were approved, Pantoja began carving the cedar wood into the exact image in the sketch. He sanded the surfaces and then applied a thick layer of plaster before painting the sculptures with oils. Finally, he rubbed a piece of lamb skin on the artwork to erase the brush strokes and make the paint look like skin.
Pantoja has a degree in fine art from the University of Seville, specializing in Spanish culture. He learned the techniques he uses for creating statues in a master’s workshop. He began his career making wolves and flamenco dancers, but as a lifelong Catholic he found himself drawn to religious art and began making sculptures of Holy Mary and Jesus.
Pantoja said he does not use models to help him create the faces of his religious artworks, explaining that they are not Earthly beings, but rather divine. He said that God guides his heart and he lets the inspiration come through in his work. Each of his sculptures are different and unique.
“I can imagine just in my head,” he said, “It’s not a portrait of someone, they are from heaven. I feel it in my heart, and .. ask God.”
Pantoja said the statues give a visible representation of an invisible God. He compared having images of Jesus and Mary in a church to an individual who keeps pictures of their family members, such as parents or children, in their home to remind them of the people they love.
“That’s the way that I think the statues represent God invisible in the visible images,” he said.
In Spain, statues help Catholic people feel close to the Virgin Mary and Jesus because they can go to the Churches and look into their eyes, touch them or leave a note, he said.
Marquez-Munoz said the sacred images are a representation of Mary and Jesus, and that veneration is directed at whom the image represents and not the image itself.
“The Catholic position is very much in consonance with human psychology wherein the mind works with and is reminded and stimulated by the senses, thus facilitating prayer, adoration and worship,” he said. “For us, having images, pictures and icons facilitates us in remembering and directing ourselves to our loving and merciful God, in the same manner as having pictures of our loved ones in our smart phones, desks or wallets, reminds us of them; this is not idolatry at all.”
Pantoja visited New York in 2007, but this is the first time he has sent artwork to the United States. He said the congregation’s reaction to the unveiling of his artwork gave him chills and brought tears to his eyes.
“All the mass was very special for me because in the beginning Father played Spanish music,” Pantoja said.
“I would like to say thank you from my heart to the community of St. Mary’s for giving me this opportunity to bring artwork here to a Catholic church and I just hope that after leaving my statues here, they (the congregation) get closer to God because (the sculptures) are done from the heart for this purpose.”
More information about Pantajo’s artwork is available on his website, www. angelpantoja.com. More information about St. Mary Catholic Church is available at www.stmarysiloamsprings.com.