It's not very often that I deal in pieces made by known artists, but this one crossed my path and I could not resist. It was created by visionary folk figure Reverend W. C. Rice (1930-2004)--much more about him below--as part of his Cross Garden just outside Prattville, Alabama. And I do believe it speaks for itself!
More about Rice courtesy of John Foster writing for Spaces (spacesarchives.org): William Carlton Rice, a house painter, claimed God healed him of an ulcerated stomach on the night of April 24, 1960. A gentle, soft-spoken man, Rice’s salvation launched decades of unusual evangelical advertising near his home in Prattville, Alabama: The self-ordained minister built a Cross Garden on three acres along Autauga County Road 85 that would eventually be visited by people from all over the world, and described in many books and blogs.
By the late 1990s, Rice had installed hundreds of white, wooden crosses, all dabbed with red paint, around his brick home and along the county road. Crosses ranged in size from recycled telephone poles to pencil-thin constructions he gathered into dense, freestanding sculptures or suspended in trees with string. He matched his cross displays with as many—if not more—hand-painted admonitions and apocalyptic warnings such as “Hell is Hot” and “Sinners Burn in Hell.” To casual passersby, Rice’s fervent “fire and brimstone” messages could be scary; they also made most stop and take notice. Any object was fair game for a message. Abandoned washing machines, upright refrigerators, rusted tin, old boards, cinder blocks—even wrecked cars were covered with pronouncements about salvation and hell.
Rice built a small, wooden roadside chapel that he also covered with crosses and signs. Sometimes wearing a 14-inch cross around his neck, he regularly welcomed visitors there during the 1980s and 1990s, distributing his own tracts, and praying with believers if they wished to do so. His home was also packed with crosses and religious figurines, and his truck was adorned with crosses and messages.
Since Rice’s death, his wife, Marzell, and their children have tended the Cross Garden, just as he asked them to do. It is easy to view from either side of County Road 86, north of Highway 15 at Indian Hill Road in Prattville.
20" w x 13 1/2" t and plenty rusted from living out in the elements. There is a cut in at left, as evident, which I think is additive, and a tear to the metal at center top, which makes one want to be a bit gentle with it. Not very heavy, and easily hung from a couple of nails on the wall.
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