Holy Roller, by Ginger Henry Geyer

Christian Century, Jan 11, 2003

THERE IS an essential playfulness in my work that I hope prevents it from being obnoxiously earnest," says sculptor Ginger Henry Geyer. "I comb my middle-class American world for sacramental objects--such as fire hydrants, toys, make-up mirrors and sleeping bags--and invest them with scripture and art history....

If the work succeeds in defamiliarizing the familiar, the incongruities in it may collide and expose divine mystery." Holy Roller, made of glazed porcelain with platinum, is a reflection on the meaning of Pentecost. It includes the image of a Pentecost fresco by Giotto, from the Arena Chapel in Padua. "The fresco led me back to the story in Acts, where the disciples are gathered in a room, waiting instructions. Jesus had told them they would receive the Holy Spirit, and they probably feared what that might entail. Giotto shows the group just as they are about to find out." Part of the inspiration for the work, Geyer says, is her memory of "an old Disney cartoon where Donald or Mickey paints a checkerboard onto a blank wall .... This `holy roller' seems to have a readiness that urges us to not separate the paint from the wall. In the paint tray, the whitewash has been transformed; the fresco is lapped up onto the roller and needs to go back up. In the firing, the paint tray warped and cracked, so now it appears bent and leaking; therefore the paint job must be swift and sure. The holy spreads; it cannot be contained. Holy rolling is the artist's job. Like Pentecost, this signals a call to action." Geyer is both a student and adjunct professor at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. Her sculpture has been exhibited in the Center for Art and Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., in various other seminary and gallery settings, and regularly at Edith Baker Gallery in Dallas.