SCULPTURES BY FREDERICK FRANCK

Comments and Captions by Frederick Franck

Photos by John Lewis Stage (unless otherwise noted)

FIGURE WAVING

This metal figure, "rising from the earth, sinking back into it," waves a leafy branch.

THE HAND OF SUFFERING, OF AGONY

Inside the center of the hand: "a stigmata of blood and tears."

THE HAND OF REBIRTH, OF RESURRECTION

This hand emerges from a river, "rising above the flood, holding a flower aloft."

THE COSMIC FISH

"A symbol all my own, added to the official iconography: a transcultural, transreligious, embodiment and symbol of that radical interdependence of all living things on Earth: the Oneness of the Many, the Manyness of the One."

THE UNKILLABLE HUMAN

This metal work "came about on my return from Hiroshima, where burned into a concrete wall I saw the shadow of the fellow human evaporated the moment the Bomb struck. Through the empty negative — mere flames of steel — one sees the Human rising like a Phoenix from its ashes."

SOCIAL MASK

"the human face, closed off"

HUMAN FACE

"open, revealing the True Self"

FACE OF FACES

"Face of Faces (Nicolas Cusa); The Original Face (Hui Neng)"
"The Face to me epitomizes the specifically unkillable Human core, the Sleeping Christ within, the Buddha Nature, the Jivanmukti of Hinduism, the Sacred Man of the Taoist sages, the Perfect Man of the Sufis, the Divine Spark."

SAINT FRANCIS

"My St. Francis icon was to be that of a saint for all seasons, a transhistorical, transreligious messenger of love, of life, of nature, of the Earth as sacred." (Photo by Luz Piedad Lopez)

KWANNON-MADONNA

"embracing all beings, sign of infinite mercy, whose mantle is a tree trunk"

MAHAKASYAPA

"This sculpture is a variation on the Flower Sermon. The Buddha called his disciples together and lifted up a flower for their commentary. Mahakasyapa simply smiled. He became the Buddha's favorite disciple and the founder of Zen."

INCARNATIONS OF HUMANUM

"All my icons seem to evoke Awakening, Rebirth, the Resurrection of the inner life, of the Unkillable Human, of the Fullness of Life.

EXITING PACEM

The door is a wood sculpture in the form of the sun.
Pacem in Terris is open for visitors from May - October on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am - 6 pm. Admission is free. For information on receiving the newsletter "The Shoestring" write to:

Pacem in Terris
96 Covered Bridge Road
Warwick, NY 10990