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The Altar of Intersections: Inaugural Exhibit


  • St. Paul's Episcopal Church 2747 Fairmount Boulevard Cleveland Heights, OH, 44106 United States (map)

Guests and friends are encouraged to visit and interact with The Altar of Intersections exhibit from March 17 - June 4, 2023, during regular business hours:

Mon - Friday 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Sunday 7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

A Message from Rev. Tracey:

Intersections is a collection of photos from 1992 to 2022 that explores the paradoxes of urban violence and decay, conflict in the Holy Land, the immigrant crisis in America, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, institutional racism, homophobia, and anti-semitism — issues that have been at the heart of my vocation for the past fifty years.  

I pondered and prayed over these particular images, knowing I needed to share them as a group, but I didn’t know how.  Recently, I realized that, together, they comprise the altar of my heart and soul, so I decided to present them as an altarpiece.

What is an altar?  

It’s where we experience the sacred and the holy, often in community, but sometimes in solitude.  Altars are places of ritual, sacrifice, and even violence. Altars are traditionally found in houses of worship, but they can also be discovered in the middle of cities and towns, on the beach, in the woods, along a lonely path or a well-traveled highway.  Often we don’t even notice them.

An altarpiece is a decorative art object — a painting, sculpture, or carving representing a religious subject placed on or behind an altar. 

These double-sided images form an interactive altarpiece. Each image is printed on inkjet paper and then sealed onto roughly painted wood blocks, mounted on metal stands, and separated by plumbing hardware. Thank you to my friend and fellow artist Maryann Breisch, who created the altar frontal and backdrop made of Muslim and erosion cloth to set the stage for my collection. Click here to read the full artist’s statement.