Coeur d'Alene artist completes sculpture of Jesus Christ on the cross

COEUR d'ALENE — The day after the world celebrated the anniversary of his birth, a local artist placed the final touches on a cold-cast resin sculpture of Jesus Christ affixed to an olive wood cross bearing the Jubilee Medal of Saint Benedict.

“It was very fulfilling for me, very spiritual,” sculptor Cheryl Metcalf said Friday, staring up at the finished piece on the wall in her Rockford Building Studio.

"It is the only piece that it’s hard for me to let go," she said. "It was powerful to me.”

Nail heads protrude from the upturned wrists, the head heavily hangs with a crown of gold-tipped thorns and the eyelids are slightly open, depicting a near-death Christ that has not yet breathed his final breath.

"If the light hits him just right, you can see the bronze come through in some places," Metcalf said, explaining the effects of bronze powder in the resin.

“Some bronze as you're pouring it might settle in some places,” she said. “You can see it on him.”  

The near-life-sized sculpture will soon be delivered to a local Catholic family who commissioned Metcalf to craft the sacred piece. She began working on the project in March, although plans for it were discussed long before she began shaping the clay.

“When I started the mold I was just working back to back to back, day after day,” Metcalf said. "The chest, that took me a full week to make the mold. It took me a full day to pour the chest in the resin. Same with the legs. The head and the arm I probably molded in a week’s time.”

When The Press visited Metcalf's studio for an article on the project in August, she said people saw what she was crafting and would stop in to share their reactions and their own experiences of faith.

“I think the holy spirit will move you," she said. "People would come in and it’s just opened so many conversations.

“It’s just such a connection,” she said. “To have walked through every single step of the creation of this piece and feeling the different emotions that go along with it — even doing the maquette, that was pretty powerful.”

In reverence, Metcalf didn't mark the sculpture with her artist's signature.

“I couldn’t even sign it. Do you sign Jesus? I couldn’t put my name on it,” she said. “I know it’s not Jesus obviously, but it’s a representation of him."

Working on this figure of faith was spiritually fulfilling for Metcalf. She said she hopes the family that receives it will also be as profoundly moved.

“I would hope that it speaks to them always and that those who come into their house as a guest, that it speaks to them and it’s just a witness," she said.

    Artist Cheryl Metcalf discusses the powerful experience of sculpting a depiction of Jesus on the cross Friday in her downtown Coeur d'Alene studio. She began working on the piece in March and will soon deliver it to the local family that commissioned it.
  

    A depiction of Jesus Christ on the cross is seen Friday in Cheryl Metcalf's studio.
  

    Cheryl Metcalf on Friday shows some of the silicone molds she used for a near-life-sized statue of Jesus Christ on the cross, a privately commissioned piece that will soon be delivered to the owners.