16th Street Ambiguity

Original - Oil mixed media on canvas

30"x 40"

The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a white supremacist terrorist attack which occurred at the African-American 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963. In the after-math they noticed the face of the white Jesus was gone. News of the bombing reached artist John Petts in Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire. He quickly offered his services to create and install a replacement window from Wales at the 16th Street Church and it was a Black Jesus.

This painting reflects the original stained glass window as it appeared right after the bombing. I used artistic license to replaced the missing pieces with scenes from the universe as well as adding spirit images of the young girls that were killed onto the glass; (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins, Carol Robertson). This whole painting came about as a result of the exhibition titled  "Birmingham 2013 - Remembering The Movement That Changed The World" at the Birmingham Public Library and was the cover art to the brochure for the event.