c. 2000 Religion News Service

BELLEVILLE, Ill. _ Painter Janet McKenzie’s quiet, hermitlike life has been turned upside down since winning the Jesus 2000 art competition sponsored by the National Catholic Reporter at the end of last year. Her artistic vision of Jesus, “Jesus of the People,” is dark-skinned. That alone was apparently enough to warrant hate mail, nasty e-mail and phone threats; one group even threatened to picket her Vermont home.

Sister Wendy Beckett, the BBC art expert made famous in the United States by PBS, judged the final 10 entries. She said McKenzie’s Jesus “is a haunting image of a peasant Jesus _ dark, thick-lipped, looking out on us with ineffable dignity, with sadness but with confidence.”

The dark skin was enough to ignite the ire of some. But when people found out McKenzie used an African-American woman as a model, the hate mail really increased.

“Initially I was very saddened, but now I feel differently because I know change comes hard and as an artist I feel it’s my job to lead people,” McKenzie said. She drove from Vermont to attend the recent opening of the third showing of the Jesus 2000 exhibit, this time in Belleville, just outside St. Louis.

The exhibit continues to grow and gather national interest. The largest sample yet of the contest’s entries is on display through Nov. 1 at the Guild Center at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. Earlier in the year 35 works had been on display in New York. That grew to 44 in a small gallery space at a seminary in Chicago. Currently 63 works are being shown. McKenzie, who prefers painting in remote and rural Vermont, has attended all three openings.

“This thing has taken on a life of its own. People just want it that badly,” said Thomas Roberts, editor of NCR. While other papers and media outlets wrote ad nauseam about potential computer meltdowns and security issues, the NCR wanted to do something different to welcome the new millennium.

When former editor Michael Farrell first had the idea for the art competition, Roberts said the staff was concerned. “The fear was we wouldn’t get anyone to respond,” he said.

But 1,678 entries poured in from 19 countries.

The Jesus 2000 exhibit is currently scheduled to make one more stop near Baltimore. Roberts said requests for the exhibit keep coming in. Other venues may be in the works.

What began as a journalistically creative way to discuss the new millennium has grown into a cultural phenomenon. The Shrine expects at least 10,000 people to walk through the exhibit. There the public will see Jesus as clown, street person, modern-day carpenter, TV news anchor, sitting in a diner, even as a poor, black death row inmate.

“The diversity of it all is so wonderful,” said Marylyn Felion of Omaha, Neb. Felion painted “Christ as Poor, Black Death Row Inmate.” “It reminds us of the fact that Christ is in every single individual. There isn’t anyone we can exclude,” she added.

Felion knew the model of her painting well. She accompanied him to the electric chair. “He was the most God-filled person I know,” she said. Her friend had killed three people 20 years earlier while drunk and on drugs.

While in prison he became a Christian and a prisoner that others looked up to. Felion said he explained to her that while he didn’t want to die, he would just keep repeating to himself, “I’m coming home, Lord.”

When Felion went to view his body after the execution, she was stunned by her friend’s serene smile. “It stopped me in my tracks,” she said. “The mortician said he’d never seen anything like it.” That’s the expression she painted.

“Christ said what you do to the least of mine you do to me. And is there anyone more least than a death row inmate?” Felion asked. “He was such an example of the awesome, transforming power of God’s love.”

Still, Felion said she was glad she didn’t win the competition. She’s happy people pay attention to her version of Jesus but agrees with the judge’s choice because McKenzie’s image of Jesus was more inclusive.

“There are so many issues facing us today, we need a variety of images to help us keep our notion of what people of God are,” Felion said. Felion also said she was disgusted McKenzie has received so much hate mail. “That tells us something about our culture, doesn’t it?” she asked.

It all makes McKenzie smile shyly.

“People said the power of art has been minimized over the years, that it doesn’t exist the way it did before. Now I feel the power of art is alive and well. It’s all really kind of miraculous, you know,” she said. “I guess Jesus Christ is still important.”

McKenzie, who had never read NCR, is not a Catholic. A friend sent her the information about the contest. She won $2,000 and a lot of press for her winning entry.

McKenzie had insisted on a Plexiglas cover for her painting in Chicago and New York because of the many threats. But in Belleville she decided to take her chances and the painting is on display without the clear cover. She’s paying more attention to the positive feedback.

“The rallying and support has been phenomenal,” McKenzie said, like the story told by one of the initial judges and the curator of the Chicago exhibit, Pattie Wigand Sporrong.

“I had an older woman come in who was dressed to the nines,” Sporrong explained. “She was African-American. She burst into tears when she saw McKenzie’s painting and said `Honey, I’m an atheist, but that’s my Jesus right there.”’

DEA END WICAI