Saturday, April 9, 2011

Bible in Miniature - the Christian Kitsch Art of Flo Boatright

This is the kind of thing you cannot (until now) find by staring into your computer screen.  You have to go out into the vast, wind torn center of Route 66 America to find this stuff.  The artist, Flo Boatright, apparently made her way through life without herself or her art being recorded anywhere on the internet.  Even the museum where we found her art could not find unstained hard copies of these little booklets about her.


















Let me say at the outset something that still startles me about this great kitsch art:  these pieces are intended to be Christmas tree ornaments!  It is fun to imagine some young children taking a look around the artist's Christmas tree, and finding this macabre collection.

Little of it seems to have to do with Christmas.




















This is always good advice:














Either Flo Boatright was fixated on death, or else maybe the Bible is:




















































I think that must be Saul of Tarsus at right, consenting to St. Stephen's death: 


















Perhaps someone can clue me in as to why a bottle of champagne is a symbol for Moses the lawgiver?


















Here are a few more favorites of mine:


















The dog licking the sores of Lazarus is a nice touch.





4 comments:

Unknown said...

how cool . this is my aunt flo . I can remember her house at Christmas when I was a kid and these ornaments hanging on it . kinda creeped me out . thank you for finding them . Paul

Anonymous said...

Hey this is our Aunt Flo art work. My brother paul and sister patty and myself know these. They used to be in another museum kind of place i think through her church.thanks for findi.g these. If u saw me and looked at her picture u would see just about the same person.
Thanks for this.
Cindy Velarde

Anglican Beach Party said...

Thank you so much for your comment, Cindy! I loved getting the opportunity to see these. They are quite unique, and exhibit a deep knowledge of the Bible, and careful sense of craftsmanship.

Thanks again for writing!

Anglican Beach Party said...

Paul ... Thanks for your message. I think that in a way, they are supposed to creep us out. Too often, we gloss over what are really shocking or startling things in Scripture, because we have read them so often.

This kind of art (like the stories of Flannery O'Connor) allow us to understand the Scripture passages as if hearing the for the first time.

Thanks again for writing!