Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia
The University of Arizona-Tucson commissioned DeGrazia’s series for their Thomas Moore Chapel. It was felt that the Stations of the Cross could serve as a splendid opportunity to make a historical event pertinent to today's world and a source of virile spirituality that would prove attractive to students. When he was first approached about the project DeGrazia turned them down. Then after further consideration he consented to paint in oil the Stations of the Cross for St. Thomas Moore Chapel.
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The fourth station - Jesus meets his mother - is tender and light. A splash of white and yellow rises from the ground as if to hold the pair up. At the start of the DeGrazia stations, Christ shoulders his large cross. "He's carrying the weight of the world. He's carrying the weight of us, the sinners," DeGrazia said. In later stations, the cross nearly overcomes Jesus and his body begins to contort under its burden.
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Unlike the traditional series of images for the stations, DeGrazia’s stations have a fifteenth addition. The series ends with the Resurrection.
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DeGrazia said he didn't consider the Way of the Cross complete without the risen Christ: "To me this is the way the Way of the Cross should end, with Christ risen. Alleluia." Angels, dancing children and a Yaqui deer dancer celebrate Christ in glory in the Resurrection painting.
DeGrazia's paintings of the crucifixion and resurrection are exhibited each Lent and for a few months after Easter at the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun.
- excerpt from NANCY WIECHEC in ''Non-religious' artist painted works of power, intensity'
The Way of the Cross series is a desert-centric interpretation of the stations of the cross, done in DeGrazia’s signature style of bold colors and simple strokes. At the conclusion of his work, he commented that never before had he been so caught up in any of his work--once he started painting the Stations, he could not stop.
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In a recorded statement that accompanies the paintings, DeGrazia said he painted Christ alternately as black, red, yellow and white "because Christ is in the image of the beholder," in the image of all people. He used bold, bright colours as well as muted ones. Yellow, he said, for light, hope and strength; blue for hope and tenderness; red for intensity and suffering.