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Here Are Our Children: The Seven Last Words of Christ

These are seven things left in the wake of a child’s death by gun violence: the last text messages exchanged between siblings; a graduation cap; a library book that’s never been returned; tennis shoes with flashcards tucked inside them for a test that was never taken; encouraging notes for milestones that never came; a child’s First Communion veil worn just weeks before their death; and, finally, a Congressional Medal of Valor awarded to a child for dying while protecting his classmates.

Illustrations of these seven things are paired with the seven last words of Jesus Christ. Each is surrounded by lace patterns, inspired by shrouds and funeral palls, intimate and handmade objects that are an outpouring of communal love in times of grief. These patterns are an invitation to dwell in prayer.

In the twenty five years since the massacre at Columbine High School, there have been over 390 school shootings in the U.S., which have killed at least 203 and injured 441 students, educators, and others on K-12 campuses. Hundreds of thousands of young people have experienced gun violence at schools. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and teens, disproportionately affecting communities of color.

These are overwhelming statistics to take in. And, yet, not facing the enormity of what is currently unfolding right now in the United States keeps us trapped in hopelessness. A hopelessness that fuels the endless cycle that now defines our civic life: school shooting, outrage, inaction, followed by another school shooting. This is a great spiritual crisis. What does it do to our souls to be passive spectators to such violence? What part of our humanity dies? In the face of the enormity of this crisis and these questions, I offer small things. Intimate glimpses into what’s been left behind in the wake of six different school shootings.

Collective rituals of mourning have all but disappeared. The pace of news means that no one event, no matter how gruesome or joyous, seems to hold our attention very long. But, the marriage between making and mourning began when Jesus’s body was taken down from the cross, tended to, and wrapped in a fine linen.

Stations of the Cross: Indigenous Justice

Stations of the Cross: Indigenous Justice is an exploration of place, homeland, and history through the lens of the collective struggle for the rights of indigenous people. The series begins with a reflection on the history of colonialism and Native people, then moves around the world exploring current conflicts. Some of the issues addressed in the series include: the effect of the global heroin trade on inter-ethnic conflict in the Manipur region of India; open pit coal mining in Siberia and the Shor people; the ongoing displacement of Bedouin people in the Negev Desert; the genocide of Uyghur people in China, and more.

Each artwork is accompanied by a brief history and explanation alongside prayers of hope and solidarity. These artworks are available as prayer cards and poster prints which include prompts for study and reflection.

Order posters here.

Order downloads here.

Station One: Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane

The series begins in North America, situating the Garden of Gethsemane in the abundance of the Great Plains before the arrival of European settlers. The arrival of European colonialists in North America ushered in centuries of ethnic cleansing and the enslavement of Native peoples. After the formation of the United States, the federal government waged violent campaigns against many Native peoples, forcibly removed them from their ancestral lands, and subjected them to discriminatory government policies and treaties.

Today, more than one in four American Indians live in poverty. According to a report published by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called Broken Promises: Evaluating the Native American Health Care System: “Native Americans die of diabetes, alcohol use disorder, tuberculosis, suicide, and other health conditions at shocking rates. Beyond disturbingly high mortality rates, Native Americans also suffer a significantly lower health status and disproportionate rates of disease compared with all other Americans.”

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God of mercy and consolation,

Your child came into the world to free us from death. Open our eyes to the pain of the past.

Grant us strength and courage to confront the parts of our history that shame us. Remind us of the power of your reconciling love poured out for us on the cross. Amen.

Station 2: Jesus is Betrayed by Judas

American Indian boarding schools were established in the United States from the mid-17th to the early 20th centuries with a primary objective of assimilating Native American children. These boarding schools were first established by Christian missionaries of various denominations. The missionaries were often approved by the federal government to start both missions and schools on reservations, especially in the lightly populated areas of the West. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has organized a truth-seeking and truth-telling initiative about the ELCA’s involvement in Indian residential schools in the U.S. You can learn more about it here.

Similarly, the Canadian Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous children. It was funded by the Canadian government, but administered by Christian churches. Children were forcibly removed from their parents and enrolled in these schools. A national truth and reconciliation commission report in 2015 found that these institutions were a “form of cultural genocide.”

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Creator God,

We are made in your image, help us to see you and your love in the eyes of every person we meet. Help us to take the log out of our own eye, so that we may see more clearly. Strengthen us in our journey as we face our church’s complicity in hurting your beloved children. Amen.

Station 3: Jesus is Condemned by the Sanhedrin

For more than forty years Greenpeace and other environmental groups organized against seal hunting in the Arctic. These campaigns failed to distinguish between commercial and subsistence seal hunting and had the effect of cutting Inuit hunters out of the global economy. After the ban on seal products went into effect, the government of the Northwest Territories (Canada) estimated that 18 out of 20 Inuit villages lost almost 60% of their communities income.

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Justice-loving God,

We renounce the systems of this world which create injustice. Hold all people in the healing power of your love so that we may find the courage to do the work of confession and repentance. Strengthen our faith and embolden us in hope as we build up your beloved community. Amen.

Station 4: Peter denies Jesus

The Shor people are indigenous to an area of Russia called the Kemerovo Oblast, located in southwestern Siberia, where the West Siberian Plain meets the South Siberian Mountains. Open pit coal mining began in the Kemerovo Oblast in the 1970s and has destroyed much of the land considered sacred to the Shors. Mining companies have razed entire villages.

Yana Tannagasheva, an Indigenous Shor activist who protested against coal mining on her people's ancestral lands in western Siberia, is pictured in the station holding a banner that says: 'We don't want to live in moonscapes,' This refers to the practice of blasting craters into mountains as part of open pit mining.

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God of all people,

Pour out on us your love of justice that we may never cease to work to bring about your beloved community. Grant us the gift of honesty that we may not fear to speak the truth even when difficult. Amen.

Station 5: Pilate condemns Jesus

The Uyghurs are an ethnic group which have traditionally inhabited oases scattered across the Taklamakan Desert within the Tarim Basin in Northwestern China. Beginning in the tenth century, the group gradually converted to Islam which now plays a significant role in their culture and identity. They are recognized by the Chinese government as a regional minority.

Since 2014, the Chinese government has been accused of subjecting the Uyghur people to forced sterilization and forced labor. Scholars estimate that at least one million Uyghurs have been detained in internment camps and sixteen thousand mosques have been razed since 2017. Hundreds of thousands of children have been removed from their parents and sent to boarding schools. It is the largest mass internment of an ethnic-religious minority since World War II.

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Gracious God,

Open our hearts to the pain and suffering of our siblings far away. Strengthen the bonds of affection and empathy between Christians and Muslims. Your love redeems the whole world, fill us with your spirit that we may be liberators in your name. Amen

Station 6: Jesus is Scourged and Crowned with Thorns

Manipur is a state in Northeast India that is resource rich and home to several indigenous groups living side-by-side. Some of these groups are officially recognized by the Indian government as “scheduled tribes” and others aren’t. There are contested land claims between the groups. After colonial rule ended, Indian lawmakers sought to assimilate the region while separate tribes sought autonomy as their own nation states. Violent clashes have continually broken out in the region for decades.

Today, the impact of heroin production and drug trafficking has further destabilized the region. Poppy farming is often the only economic option for people in the area. In May 2023, a riot broke out during a political demonstration and the violence has affected all communities in the state. According to human rights groups, around 200 people have been killed and more than 70,000 people have been displaced, including at least 10,000 children.

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Holy God,

Give us the patience to understand complicated situations and the fortitude to always be learning about people and places unknown to us. Help us bring light and justice wherever we go. Amen.

Station 7: Jesus Bears the Cross

The Rohingya people are a stateless indigenous group that have predominantly resided in the Rakhine State in Myanmar. Before the start of the genocide 1.4 million Rohingya people lived in Myanmar. Since the start of the genocide in October 2016, more than 700.000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar. Many have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, while others have fled to places like Thailand, India, Malaysia, and other parts of Southeast Asia. The Kutupalong refugee camp in

Bangladesh is the largest in the world and Rohingya refugees make up much of the camp’s population of more than 700,000 people. Many Rohingya refugees make perilous journeys over water seeking to escape to other countries. Hundreds have died making these journeys. In 2023, 569 Rohingya refugees drowned while making sea crossings. Humanitarian aid groups have called the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal one of the deadliest stretches of water in the world.

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God of all people,

We pray for all of our Muslim siblings, especially those facing persecution, incarceration, and death for their beliefs. Grant us compassion for all people and the fire of your Spirit so that we may work to bring your justice to this broken world. Strengthen us for the journey. Amen.

Station 8: Simon of Cyrene Carries the Cross

“Stolen Generations” refers to the hundreds of thousands of Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islanders who were “removed” from their families by the Australian government and church missions. The Aboriginal Protection Act of 1869 was the earliest legislation that authorized the kidnapping of Aboriginal children. The institutional church played a significant role in these kidnappings with many children placed in church-run boarding schools.

The Australian government-sponsored Bringing Them Home report estimates that between one and three and one in ten Aboriginal children were removed from their parents’ care. Today, Aboriginal Australians have the highest incarceration rate in the world. Although Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islanders make up two percent of the Australian population, they make up 27% of the prison population.

On December 29, 2015, an Aboriginal man named David Dungay Jr. was killed while in prison custody. CCTV cameras recorded corrections officers choking him to death after he refused to stop eating biscuits. He repeated that he could not breathe twelve times before he died.

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Almighty and merciful God,

Grant us the courage to confront the painful truths of our church’s past. Pour out your spirit on us so that we might resist the temptation to turn away and journey with us as we work to bring reconciliation and recompense. Amen.

Station 9: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

The Bedouin people are a nomadic tribe that has historically inhabited the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Iraq and the Levant. They have engaged in nomadic herding since 6,000 BCE. In 2005, Bedouin were estimated to make up ten percent of the Arab population in Israel. As of 2013, there are 40,000 Bedouin people residing in the West Bank.

Located in the Jordan Valley, Humsa Al Bqai’a is one of 38 Bedouin and herding communities partially or fully located within Israeli-declared ‘firing zones.’ These are some of the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank, with limited access to education and health services, and to water, sanitation and electricity infrastructure.

On November 3, 2020, 73 people, including 41 children, were displaced from Humsa Al Bqai’a when Israeli forces demolished their homes and destroyed their belongings. Three quarters of the settlement’s inhabitants lost their shelters, making it the largest displacement in more than four years.

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God of mercy and consolation,

Your child came into the world to free us from death. Pour out your healing spirit on all people in all places. Open our hearts to the pain and suffering of those far away. Grant that we may walk in the way of the cross and find it the way of peace. Amen.

Station 10: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve is in the middle of Botswana and was created to protect the traditional territory of the 5,000 Gana, Gwi and Tsila Bushmen (and their neighbors the Bakgalagadi), and the game they depend on. The Kalahari is one of the last places on Earth where there are people who still survive by hunting with spears, bows and arrows.

The bushmen have been engaged in a decades-long legal battle to stay in their home. The 1980s brought diamond mining to the Kalahari and by the mid-1990s, open pit diamond mining had resulted in the eviction of the bushmen. The Botswana government evicted the bushmen saying that their residence in the reserve was a threat to wildlife conservation efforts while allowing for open pit and underground diamond mining as well as fracking.

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Almighty God,

We pray for all the worlds’ peoples, especially those whose survival is dependent on subsistence hunting and gathering. Grant us the power and strength to resist the powers of the world that value wealth over people. Help us to protect the most vulnerable people and places in your beautiful creation. Amen.

Station 11: Jesus Entrusts Mary to John (at the Foot of the Cross)

Venezuela is a resource rich country with high reserves of metals and minerals like gold, diamonds, nickel, coltan and uranium. Most of the gold mining that happens in the southern states, including Bolívar, is illegal, with much of the gold smuggled out of the country. The mines are operated by criminal syndicates that brutally oversee their operations. Human rights groups report that these organizations impose abusive working conditions and in the worst cases have dismembered and killed workers accused of theft and other offenses in front of other workers.

Illegal gold mining is the last resort for the economically marginalized and many of Venezuela’s indigenous people have been forced to work in illegal mines. While the practice is illegal in Venezuela, miners use mercury to extract the gold causing serious health problems among the workers.

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Healing God,

When the world is full of pain and suffering, you are with us. As Jesus entrusted his mother to his dearest disciple, you have entrusted us with the care of your earth and your people, our siblings. Guide our work, strengthen us for the journey, and be with us in our grief. Amen.

Station 12: Jesus dies and is laid in the tomb

The red handprint is one of the symbols of the movement to find justice for missing and murdered indigenous women. Sometimes referred to as MMIW, missing and murdered indigenous women is a human rights crisis of violence against indigenous women in Canada and the United States. From 2001 to 2015, the homicide rate for indigenous women in Canada was almost six times higher than the homicide rate for other women. In the United States, Native women are more than twice as likely to experience violence than any other demographic.

A 2014 report by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, titled Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: A National Operational Overview found that more than 1,000 Indigenous women were murdered over a span of thirty years. In the United States, a Department of Justice study found that some counties have rates of murder against American Indian and Alaska Native women that are over ten times the national average.

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Eternal God,

Your Son was lifted up on the cross to draw all people to himself. Grant that we who call him our brother, may at all times find your mercy in him. Stay with us through the darkest night, walk alongside us as we work to bring your justice and healing to this hurting world. Amen.

Stations of the Cross and Resurrection

Stations of the Cross and Resurrection pairs moments in the Passion story with Jesus’s post-resurrection ministry. The Station of the Cross artworks depict moments of chaos and crisis during this past year of pandemic life. The Stations of the Resurrection depict moments of community and catharsis. Some of the events addressed in the art include: the second COVID wave in India, the coup in Myanmar, the brutalization of migrants at the U.S./Mexico border, and the fall of Afghanistan. The intent behind the format of this series is to encourage people to pray the stations as pairs, the first station of the cross with the first station of the resurrection, and so on. Chaos and catharsis. Grief and joy. Cross and resurrection. Each individual piece has decorative elements taken from liturgical embroidery patterns. Like all of my projects, this one engages deeply with current events, drawing from a wide variety of sources. You can visit marybutton.com/blog/bibliography for a full bibliography of the project, with links to the news stories and photographs that inspired each artwork.

You can learn more about the project here.

You can order both postcard and print sets. Each will include all 16 artworks. Digital downloads are available for purchase as prayer cards and posters. Prints will ship by the last week of February. Postcards will ship mid-March as production time will take a little longer. Just like last year, a portion of the proceeds from poster print sales will benefit RIP Medical Debt.

*Shipping is subject to delays because we’re still living in a pandemic that has disrupted supply chains and postal delivery.

Jesus Is Condemned to Death/The Empty Tomb

Jesus’ condemnation by pilate is paired with the empty tomb, and while the Station of the Cross lifts up images of the devastating second wave of COVID in India, the Station of the Resurrection features images of the first COVID vaccinations. My hope is that by pairing these two artworks we’re able to hold together and in tension, the ongoing pandemic, the unequal distribution of the vaccine globally, and the joy and hope many of us felt - and still feel - seeing medically vulnerable people receive the protection against serious illness the vaccine provides.

Jesus Accepts His Cross/Jesus Meets Mary Magdalene

This second diptych pairs Jesus accepting his cross with the resurrected Christ meeting Mary Magdalene. The Station of the Cross features images from U.S. meatpacking plants where exploitative labor practices fueled devastating and deadly COVID outbreaks. The Station of the Resurrection features images from the workers rights movement of the last year. I have found great hope in the ways Americans are re-thinking and re-configuring their work lives.

Simon Helps Jesus Carry the Cross/Jesus on the Road to Emmaus

The third artwork in this series pairs Simon carrying the cross with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. The Station of the Cross depicts Simon carrying the cross in the midst of the shrine outside of Gold Spa in Atlanta where Asian women were brutally murdered. And the Station of the Resurrection lifts up images of hope and solidarity from the peaceful protests in Philadelphia in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

Jesus Meets His Mother/Jesus Appears in the Upper Room

These artworks depict moments of both despair and hope in the face of climate change. The Station of the Cross depicts the catastrophic fires in Greece in 2021 while the Station of the Resurrection pairs Jesus's appearance to the disciples in the upper room with a portrait of an climate change "visionary" Dana Tizya-Tramm, Chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. He is a leading voice on climate change's impact in the Arctic.

Like all of my Stations projects, these stations are part of a constant engagement with world events. For more information about the wildfires in Greece, click here. And for the Washington Post profile on Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm, click here.

Jesus Meets The Women of Jerusalem/The Great Commission

These two artworks pair moments of grief and hope in the midst of the violence in Palestine and Israel that broke out in 2021. The Station of the Cross depicts two children in the rubble of their bombed out apartment building and the Station of the Resurrection depicts a moment of joy between a group of young men.

Jesus is Stripped of His Garments/The Ascension

These artworks pair Jesus being stripped of his garments and his ascension. The station of the cross depicts the brutality experienced by Haitian refugees at the Texas border. The station of the resurrection lifts up the resiliency and resistance of Haitian communities in the United States.

Jesus is Nailed to the Cross/Pentecost

This pairing addresses the coup in Myanmar which began in early February 2021. The Station of the Cross depicts a group of protestors carrying an injured companion and the Station of the Resurrection depicts a nun kneeling before members of the military asking them to not be violent with protestors. Women have been at the forefront of the nonviolent movement for peace in Myanmar.

Jesus Dies on the Cross/Saul on the Road to Emmaus

These two artworks address the fall of Afghanistan. The Station of the Cross is drawn from photographs of an Afghan family on the tarmac of the Kabul airport and the Station of the Resurrection a photograph of a pair of Afghan girls being welcomed with art-making at the Philadelphia airport.

Stations of the Cross: Pandemic Hope

Stations of the Cross: Pandemic Hope lifts up images and stories of hope, resiliency, and relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic. Featuring the dedicated work of healthcare, sanitation, and mortuary workers in moments of tenderness in the face of disease and death.

Each station is paired with stanzas from Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope is the thing with feathers.” Dickinson was a deeply compassionate and introspective writer who created beauty out of isolation.

These artworks are available as prayer cards which include prompts for reflection and journaling. These prompts will help individuals and communities to create their own oral histories of the last year. In telling and share our stories, we begin to heal from our collective trauma and preserve moments of hope and resiliency for generations to come.

Pre-order prayer cards here.

Pre-order prints here.

Order prayer card downloads here.

Order poster print downloads here.

Jesus is condemned to death

Hope is the thing with feathers

A nurse rests for a few minutes on a COVID ward in Wuhan, China.

Jesus accepts the cross

That perches in the soul

A mother and daughter reach out to each other through a glass window at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington. The Seattle-area long-term care facility became ground zero for the West Coast's coronavirus outbreak.

Jesus falls for the first time

And sings the tune

An opera singer performs "O Sole Mio" from his window in Paris on the tenth day of a strict lockdown in France.

Jesus Meets his Mother

Without the words

Worshipers of Legio Maria in Nairobi attend a prayer session

Simon helps Jesus carry the cross

And never stops at all

A funeral home worker plays the violin as a deacon holds an umbrella before the cremation of a coronavirus victim at a cemetery in Bogota, Colombia.

Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

And sweetest in the Gale is heard

A granddaughter and grandmother hug through a plastic drop cloth hung up on a homemade clothes line in Wantagh, N.Y. It was the first time they had contact since the pandemic began.

Jesus Falls for the 2nd Time

And sore must be the storm

A mortuary worker stands at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery where Covid-19 victims are buried daily in Manaus, Brazil.

Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

That could abash the little bird

A woman holds a photo of a healthcare worker who died of COVID-19.

Jesus falls for the third time

That kept so many warm

A maintenance worker sanitizes the handrails outside a homeless shelter.

Jesus is stripped of his garments

I’ve heard it in the chillest land

A doctor provides care to an unhoused person.

Jesus is nailed to the cross

And on the strangest sea

A wife weeps while hugging her husband in his final moments in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, California.

Jesus dies on the cross

Yet - never - in extremity

A Covid-19 patient, lies in her intensive care bed as family members attempt to communicate via video at Roseland Community Hospital on the South Side of Chicago

Jesus is taken down from the cross

It asked a crumb

A doctor hugs and comforts a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit during Thanksgiving at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas.

Jesus is laid in the tomb

of me

A mortician shares photos of a COVID-19 victim with their family before cremation.

Stations of the Cross: Jesus at the Border

Jesus at the Border is an exploration of migrant journeys to the U.S./Mexico border. Humanitarian aid groups estimate that tens of thousands of migrants have disappeared in the desert wilderness north of the border. The group Humane Borders has documented the deaths of more than 2,100 migrants in the last twenty years in Pima County alone. While illegal border crossings are at an all-time low, deaths and disappearances of migrants along the Southern border of the United States persists. As racist rhetoric about walls and steel slat fences grows louder and louder, the stories of people making the perilous journey to the U.S. are all but silenced. Jesus at the Border attempts to lift up the human stories of migration as an antidote and counter-narrative to the criminalization of migration.

You can find prayer cards, posters, and digital downloads of the series in my shop!

Icons and Illuminations

An ongoing experiment in finding resonance. This series began immediately after the election of Donald Trump and attempts to lift up words and images of beauty, resilience, truth, and meaning in the midst of chaos.

Prints from the series are available in my shop.

Stations of the Cross: Refugee Journeys

Stations of the Cross: Refugee Journeys is an exploration of human movement all over the world. Each of the fourteen stations in this year’s series explores the movement of people from one place to another.

The series begins in North America — exploring the history of forced migration in the United States, the re-location of indigenous people in Louisiana today, the movement of migrant farmworkers and the incarceration of migrants and their children in detention centers. Other stations document the movement of North African and Syrian refugees across the Mediterranean Sea as they journey toward Europe; Rohingya refugees escaping genocide in Myanmar; Venezuelans fleeing governmental chaos; Ukranians escaping the war in the Donbass region.

Embedded in the images of each station are maps documenting the movement of people. As you pray the stations, you travel across the world twice over in images. Surrounding each station is a border which depicts the movement of Jesus toward the cross.

Print sets are available for pre-order here.

Orders will ship mid-February.

Stations of the Cross: Mental Illness

Stations of the Cross: Mental Illness addresses the cross-cutting theological implications of mental illness. The artwork in this series expresses some of the experiential quality of mania. As the colors darken, I hope to illuminate the darkness of depression as well as some of the implications for social justice presented by American society’s mistreatment of those with mental illnesses. The narrative shape of the series comes from Kay Redfied Jamison’s book Touched with Fire: Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament. This book shepherded me through the first year after my diagnosis and helped me to understand the central point of this series of work: people with mental illness experience the world in ways that illuminate great truths about the very nature of human existence.

The stations illustrate the words of artists profiled in Jamison’s study of creativity and bipolarity, as well as some mentioned in another of her excellent books, Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide. Robert Lowell, Delmore Schwartz, August Strindberg, and Virginia Woolf are just a few of the artists included in this series.

You can find posters and digital downloads of this series in my shop.

Spirit of Wonder

This project was a set design for The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts’ annual Music and Worship Arts Week at Lake Junaluska in North Carolina. The theme of the 2019 gathering was Spirit of Wonder. This design included sheer floating trees, mobiles made of colorful tissue wisteria, sparkling paper roses, all with LED lights weaving it together. I worked as part of a team of worship designers, dancers, and musicians. Throughout the week of the conference, I taught workshops in tie-dye, paper sculpture, and meditative art-making. The artwork created in these workshops was incorporated into the set design throughout the conference.

Sacraments and Seasons

Sacraments and Seasons was the theme of the 2018 Montreat Worship Conference. The conference is sponsored by the Presbyterian Association of Musicians and runs twice, two back-to-back weeks at the Montreat Conference Center every summer. In 2018 each day of the conference revolved around a different liturgical season. We opened the conference with a beautiful, meditative Advent service, then closed by celebrating the joyous cacophony of Pentecost.

The organizing Scripture was Psalm 104. The Psalmist’s description of God creating the cosmos became the backbone of the visual design. Working in collaboration with a worship team, each worship service was paired with it’s own patterns, textures, and colors. Our worship book contained coloring pages to start each liturgy. Those designs became fabric patterns for each liturgical season and feast. The banners with these patterns moved across the stage and was connected with long, beautiful pieces of hand-died sheer material. Also included were metallic hoops, laced through with LED lights, containing fabric depictions of constellations.

Check out my textile design album to see some of the fabrics I designed for this set design!

Season of Giving

This installation at First Congregational Church in Memphis, TN was created to celebrate their annual fall Season of Giving. The backdrop was created out of bamboo wallpaper which provided a rich texture for the acrylic ink painting of flowers that mimic the ceiling hangings. The intricate circular hangings were a community project and throughout the preceding liturgical season volunteers joined me in the church’s art studio to make them in a wide spectrum of warm fall tones.

Special Commissions

I do a variety of commission work. You can see in this small collection the breadth of artwork I’ve created for individuals, non-profit groups, churches, and weddings.

Pictured here you can see: a special ordination gift with the words of a much-loved hymn, a Ketubah, words from the Song of Songs to celebrate a wedding, a pair of memorial icons, and a Christmas card for the Massachusetts Council of Churches.

You can reach me at marybethbutton@gmail.com if you’d like to commission a unique artwork. I love collaborating with individuals and communities to create meaningful artwork.

Stations of the Cross: Mass Incarceration

Stations of the Cross: Mass Incarceration is an attempt for Christians to engage in prayerful reflection and study of the issues surrounding mass incarceration.

The series combines images from the history of mass incarceration in America with those of the last day of Jesus’s life. The Stations begin with the advent of the War on Drugs because at the time of its start in the 1970s there were roughly 300,000 men and women incarcerated in the U.S; today there are over 2 million.

The Stations of the Cross are an ancient devotion meant to ground viewers in the story of Jesus's death, the Passion narrative. It is the story of the execution by empire of a political dissident and it is at the very heart of the Christian faith.

The 14 Stations in this series address just some aspects of the legal, historical, and cultural context of mass incarceration. By pairing events in the Passion narrative with events in the history of mass incarceration, I invite viewers into a new understanding of a God who suffers with those whom we have pushed to the margins of society and hidden from view in an increasingly powerful Prison Industrial Complex.

You can find poster prints and downloads in my shop!

Stations of the Cross: Climate Change

The 2016 Stations of the Cross address climate change with a particular focus on the biodiversity crisis and mass extinction. While each Stations of the Cross project has addressed some aspect of human suffering, Stations of the Cross: Climate Change seeks to explore the catastrophic torment of the Earth. More than any other series, this body of work is a call to action.

Stations of the Cross: Climate Change is a collection of 14 drawings that illustrate various aspects of the biodiversity crisis including deforestation, desertification, and ocean acidification. These drawings combine images of those creatures on the brink of extinction because of our exploitation of the Earth with drawings of hands, which tell the story of the Passion through gestures. All 14 drawings are available in the form of a coloring book. Perfect for Lenten devotion, downloads and prints are also available for purchase online here. Stations of the Cross: Climate Change is an invitation for individuals and communities to engage in creative contemplation for the salvation of the Earth.

You can find coloring books, poster prints for coloring, and downloads of this series in my shop!

Epiphany

This Epiphany installation for the sanctuary at First Congregational Church in Memphis, TN is a celebration of the night sky. Remembering that the three kings followed a great star, the community at First Congo made hundreds of paper stars — big and small — together throughout the winter weeks of Advent. The backdrop is hand-painted and an interpretation of photographs from the Hubble Telescope.

Season of Creation

Instituted by the World Council of Churches, Season of Creation is a new liturgical season in which Christian communities across the world celebrate and honor God’s creation. It’s typically observed in the weeks leading up to the Feast Day of St. Francis. At First Congo and many churches around the world, the season culminates in a Blessing of the Animals. In 2012 the liturgical season coincided with the 150th anniversary of the founding of the church and part of our celebration was planting trees on our property. Our sanctuary installation was a celebration of new life, too. We created a floating forest with more than a hundred trees painted on sheer banners. Matching flags and t-shirts were added to the mix for our big anniversary service!

The Hymnbook Project

Upon graduation from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, I was awarded the prestigious Rosenberg Fellowship which provided funding for a project involving travel. The Hymnbook Project, a series of artist books crafted from hymnals collected from communities affected by a spate of church arsons across the American South in the early 2000s. This project took me across the Southern United States and awakened in me a curiosity about religious art that continues to animate my life.

The photographs in this album are of spreads from the artist book which each addressed various aspects of Southern culture from the racist legacy of Gone with the Wind to George Wallace’s campaign for the Presidency, to Chick tracts.

Lent and Easter

The sanctuary at First Congo during the Lenten season is filled with bare branches that create a haunting space casting long shadows.

On Easter Sunday, the somber, bare branches that have been hanging in the sanctuary are transformed with flowers that community members spent the Lenten season creating.

Embroidery

Embroidery is one of my great passions in life! It’s an essential part of my meditative practice. It slows me down and helps me to enjoy color, texture, and design in ways that other elements of my art studio simply don’t. The fabric pieces in this portfolio are part of an ongoing project to make embroidery squares for each animal on the Endangered Species List.