The Sassistas! would like to acknowledge and thank half-a-sista not only for dishing today's sass, but also for providing the indescribable accompanying photos.
Amidst rolling, wooded hills of southwestern Missouri stand big-eyed children. They lurk in odd places. Murals of children decorate every wall and hallway in a chapel. Big eyes follow every move. The place? Precious Moments (PM) outside Carthage, Missouri.
Arriving for my first visit, I am greeted by the American flag flanked by the Christian flag and the Missouri state flag. Big-eyed sea creatures and frogs watch from the picnic area. A big-eyed bear stands outside his miniature travel trailer. The voices of little children over the PA sing, “I’m in the Lord’s army.”
Visitors pass through the Visitors’ Center, which includes the PM Gift Shop, Perpetual Christmas Shop and the PM Deli. Resisting the shopping urge, I exit into the gardens. A PM fountain greets me. A group of herald angels with their trumpets raised to Heaven line one walkway.
Another walkway takes me to the carved, wooden doors of the chapel. Halls on each side feature stained glass windows of small children lit by soft pink lights creating the aura of a funeral home.
The walls of the empty sanctuary hold murals of biblical scenes. The characters are children: Adam and Eve, Mary and Joseph at the manger, Noah and the ark. The main mural depicts a greeting committee of winged children welcoming the newly dead children to Heaven. In the distance, Jesus talks with a group of new arrivals.
The guide notes a controversy among veterans. All of the armed services are represented by girls and boys in the appropriate dress uniforms. Many vets thought Mr. Sam Butcher, creator of PM, should have been painted adults. The guide smiles. “Sam told them, ‘Only one adult is allowed: Jesus. He’s the father of us all.’”
Below the rear of the chapel on an island in the middle of a pond stands a tiny, fairy tale house. A stone bridge connects the island to the shore. Sam built it for his children, but no one goes there anymore. Snakes have made it their home.
On the other side, a PM angel waits outside Resurrection Cave. An empty cross stands nearby. PM closed the area to visitors because a child decided to explore the cave to find Jesus’ body and disappeared, prompting a search by local police and state troopers. He emerged four hours later unharmed and empty handed.
The place makes me feel uncomfortable. A world absent of adults creeps me out. When I visited the second time, a friend joined me. She videotaped the place and muttered repeatedly, “The man is sick.” Perhaps those feelings are the dark experiences of our childhoods. Maybe we can’t view the world as innocent children anymore to protect the lost innocence of our childhoods.
Any parts of your innocent childhoods that you still hold onto? Sleeping Beauty? A favorite book? Or, have you lost your innocence?
It may surprise some people that I hang onto some wonderful things from my childhood: 4th's of July at my paternal grandmother's house in the country, Halloween in my old neighborhood, fellowship suppers with fried chicken and chocolate meringue(sp?) pies, and other things.
About a year ago, Disney re-issued Sleeping Beauty. I had pre-ordered mine because of my pleasant memories of the cartoon movie. Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather take care of the Princess. Loved them. Loved the evil witch who turns into a kick-ass dragon at the end. The one thing I had forgotten was that Sleeping Beauty was a blonde and not a brunette. So much for my memory of her.
I wonder when I walk through the gardens and the chapel at PM if these figures of little children reclaim Mr. Butcher's beliefs from his childhood. He hasn't walked unscathed through life from what little I know of it. So maybe all of these big-eyed children recapture his innocence for him.
I wish you all could see it for yourselves. It amazes me.
Posted by: half-a-sista | October 02, 2009 at 06:24 AM
I edited this post and Matissta and I picked out the photos (among about a dozen) with our mouths open in disbelief.
Just when you think you've seen everything. What could be worse than that 900-foot cross?
I have a question for you, half-a, before I head out to the Fitness Center. I plan to be back to answer your very provocative/poignant questions at the end of your post.
First the question: what attracts you to visit places that would appear to not only reinforce, but also fuel your overall disgust with this kind of loony Christianity?
Posted by: Flannista | October 02, 2009 at 06:25 AM
A friend introduced me to "tramp art" and other types of folk art which I think is now called "outsider art" lest we insult one of the creators of such things. This "outsider art" has become one of my favorite kinds of art to seek out and observe. Imagine being so consumed by the need to create that you express yourself in art for the world to see without thought that someday someone else might like it. The artist creates for him/herself. The artist must create.
My first experience with the power of that creative urge came in Baltimore, Maryland at the Folk Art Museum. A mentally ill woman made a coat out of strings she found. The coat told the story of her troubled life.
A man lived in a shack about 4'x6' and built a biplane out of lumber every year, put on a pilot's outfit and let people from the community take his picture with them in or near his plane. Every year he tore it down and then rebuilt a new plane the next year. That's pretty much all he did. Amazing.
Posted by: half-a-sista | October 02, 2009 at 06:31 AM
Our posts crossed in cyberspace. Your question demonstrates a lack of understanding of what these places do to and for me. First, all spirituality is or can be loony regardless of the type of spirituality. Second, I am not disgusted by "loony spirituality" as much as by the practitioners of such spirituality who feel compelled by their deity of choice to make me believe their "loony" beliefs.
I appreciate a person's drive to create a monument, shrine, work of art that expresses their deeply held beliefs event though I may not share those beliefs. I find it interesting to see what they will do in the name of their deity.
I would love to see the Holy Rock that the Moslems circumambulate. A holy rock? Come on now. But, is it any different than the pieces of bone that some Catholics honor as pieces of dead saints? How about the Shroud of Turin? Or, 190 foot crosses? Or, the holy books of any religion? I would go out of my way to visit any holy shrine.
These objects or places don't disgust me. It is the actions of the people behind them that often upset and disgust me.
I want to see how people express their spiritual beliefs in "art" and I use the term very loosely here.
Posted by: half-a-sista | October 02, 2009 at 06:51 AM
Don't think anyone should pass judgement on what is art or not art. I have seen plenty of creepy stuff at many galleries and museums in the world that people call majestic and classic. And its really just wierd and creepy. I figured myself whole when I finally saw the real Warhol soup cans. My that took a lot of talent. Talk about a creepy guy. Makes the guy with kid statues seem solid.
Posted by: nowayasista | October 02, 2009 at 08:11 AM
noway, I think the guy with the kid statues is way less creepy than Andy Warhol.
Posted by: half-a-sista | October 02, 2009 at 08:34 AM
half-a: right after I posted my comment, I noticed a typo -- did not see any comments from you yet -- and when I went into the Typepad platform to correct the typo, I noticed I had typed, "loony spirituality" rather than what I intended to type, "loony Christianity." So I changed that, too and headed off to the Fitness Center. You must have been at Sassistas! when the first version of my comment appeared because your response refers to "loony spirituality." I probably should have left it that way, given the Sha-Man who lives next to me and his Holy Water.
Also, your post about a month ago was about a 190-foot cross and not a 900-foot one, though it seemed that tall. All to say, that the "spirituality' of Precious Moments seems decidedly Christian -- the whole place, based on your post, seems like a holy place to which pilgrims make meccas. Are there parts of this PM park that do NOT focus on Christianity? That is not clear in your post. Also, you seemed genuinely creeped out by the place, again, based on your post. Reading your first comment to the post, I'm a bit confused that the place amazed you and tapped into childlike wonder. I'm not disputing that it does. Your original post didn't communicate that.
Let me grab my cup of coffee. I'll be right back to throw in my two cents about art and lost innocence. While working out, I thought a lot about lost innocence. I really appreciate your putting those questions out there.
Posted by: Flannista | October 02, 2009 at 08:49 AM
Can you tell us more about Mr. Butcher, half-a?
Posted by: Flannista | October 02, 2009 at 09:15 AM
half-a, it was Snow White who had the dark hair. I know the old Disney movies are considered "classics," but for some reason they leave me with a creepy feeling much like the PM shrine. The differences between good and evil in the real world are seldom depicted so easily, or so colorfully.
As a kid, I had many fun, special birthdays. I still enjoy celebrating my birthday and making birthdays a special occasion for others.
War jumped out of the history books and became a very personal and violent threat when my son deployed to Iraq. I lost my innocence then.
Posted by: PEACEsista | October 02, 2009 at 09:23 AM
For awhile after I saw the 190 foot cross, I would refer to it as the 900 foot cross for reasons I'm not quite sure of, except it was a pretty damned big one. Unconsciously I have it in my head that the cross was 900 feet tall...big enough to hold the 200 foot Jesus that Oral saw when he needed $2 million to keep from going to Heaven. Never quite understood why he didn't want to go, but he didn't. Instead he wanted the money.
The spirituality of PM is decidedly Christian. That is the traditional from which the creator of PM comes. And, it is a place that pilgrims and visitors out for a good time come by the busloads.
The only part of the PM park that does not focus on Christianity is the picnic area with the big-eyed sea creatures and the bear outside his travel trailer and, almost forgot, the island with the fairy tale house on it. Everything else is focused on Christian myth. The chapel, museum and visitors center/gift store focus on Christian spirituality.
For me being creeped out and amazed can happen at the same time. The focus on the children bothered me both times I went. Seemed a little odd and made/makes me uncomfortable, but, hey, millions of people don't see anything wrong with his focus. His drive to create these scenes and statues amazed me. Still does.
When I visited the second time, which this post is about, I took a friend. She felt quite strongly that the creator was sick. It is her perspective and I could understand where she was coming from. I was less amazed the second time seeing it through her eyes, but the wonder was still there.
Posted by: half-a-sista | October 02, 2009 at 09:31 AM
Well, I'll be the first to say it, then: the Precious Moments Promised Land and the "art" displayed there disgusts me. Disgusts me more than the artist Andy Warhol who disgusts me plenty, though his art does not. I think your friend was onto something, half-a, when she kept muttering, "This man is sick." I think so, too.
Matissta and I are members of the Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore, MD. I might even say it's my favorite art museum in the area, better than even the National Art Gallery and Hirshhorn and Freer, etc. The last exhibit we saw there was focused on folk art about spirituality. Much of it was fascinating, the work of folk artists or tramp artists who seem to be expressing a genuine belief -- more like struggle -- with some sort of God. Much of it was "dark" in nature. All of it was colorful and unpredictable. Wildly creative and breathtaking.
This Precious Moments crap reminds me of Thomas Kinkade's lighthouse paintings. This stuff is what I would call just weird and creepy. Of course, Disney World creeps me out in places, too. Also Norman Rockwell. I must have a low threshold for this kind of stuff. But back to the Precious Moments Promised Land. I don't think there is any way I would ever call this crap "art" of ANY kind. A way to express oneself? Yeah. A way to make a buck? Hell, yeah. But is it art? Hell, no.
Posted by: Flannista | October 02, 2009 at 09:34 AM
Here's what little I remember about him. He started a card company with his best friend. The name of the company was David & Jonathan. So he was an artist in the beginning. He worked with three people to create the actual ceramic pieces...a statue of them as PM children sits in one of the garden areas.
He has a family with several children (including an adopted daughter). Their pictures appear in the museum with stories about each one.
He created 21 pieces for the original collection which has now grown to include over 500 figurines.
The mansion on the property serves as his home when he is in the United States. He spends most of his time in the Philippines where he spends money building churches and schools. The guide on my first visit said, "We get a lot of people from the Philippines who were married or baptized in a church built by Mr. Butcher. We don't know what charitable things he does because he doesn't talk about them. He just does them."
He returns to the PM Chapel occasionally to repaint the murals. We missed him this last time. In June he repaired some damage to the murals from the settling of the building and was present for the annual conference of PM collectors. "They were all very excited to talk with him."
If I remember correctly, one of his sons is the CEO of PM in Carthage. That's about all I remember about him.
Posted by: half-a-sista | October 02, 2009 at 09:41 AM
PEACE, my sister and I were frightened by some of the Disney cartoon movies. She freaked out over Uncle Remus in Song of the South. My mother had to take her out of the theater she was so scared.
My disney nightmare was Bambi. When Bambi's father was killed, I cried nonstop for about half an hour. I didn't see the whole movie until I went away to college.
I lost most of my innocence at a very young age, but bits and pieces still live in here somewhere.
Posted by: half-a-sista | October 02, 2009 at 09:45 AM
Hmmm ... seems a tad harsh to me, Flann. This art reminds me of Japanese anime, which is all the rage with young people now. Neither are my favorite, but my Oxford dictionary defines "art" as:"the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination ..." I think both PM and anime fall within that broad definition. What is "art?" I guess it is defined by the eye of the beholder.
Posted by: PEACEsista | October 02, 2009 at 09:48 AM
Flann, Thomas Kinkade paintings are moneymakers, not true art. I wonder if he was ever in it for the art.
In Mr. Butcher's defense, he created the Precious Moments Chapel as a shrine to children the world over. Yes, his figurines have been mass produced by the millions, but he didn't create this chapel to make money. He doesn't charge admission to any of the exhibits. You don't need to spend a cent to see any of it. It is his offering to his god.
And, unlike a lot of people who make money from their "art", he spends it to improve the lives of other people unlike (I assume) Kinkaide, Disney, Warhol, and Rockwell.
Posted by: half-a-sista | October 02, 2009 at 09:52 AM
PEACE, thanks for the definition of art from the Oxford dictionary. I agree that the beholder defines art. We see that difference in opinion all of the time.
Posted by: half-a-sista | October 02, 2009 at 09:55 AM
PEACE -- it's VERY harsh, not a tad harsh. I know so many brilliant artists who just scrape by because their art doesn't appear to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. I don't like Japanese anime, either, but have watched a couple of feature-length films based on that art form. Those films do not deny the "dark side" of life like this PM fantasy world seems to.
Art IS defined by the eye of the beholder. Repairmen walk into my home and say, "What's all this porno on the walls?"
I'm probably reacting to lost innocence, which I'll get back to over the course of the day. My mother assigned each of us a Disney character when we were growing up. My oldest sister's was Snow White. Mine was Sleeping Beauty. My next sister's was Cinderella. That's all I remember. But we had these porcelain Disney characters on our bedroom dressers. I never liked Disney. Never. All sweetness and light. We had the Golden Book versions of Disney tales, too. I remember reading them, but never really liking them at all.
When I was seven years old, I discovered in back of a closet, the complete "Tarzan of the Apes" books. I believed they belonged to my dad when he was younger. I became completely hooked on them. They were so violent. Faces and limbs torn off by lions and tigers. But if this baby raised by apes could survive, I too could survive in the jungle of my childhood home.
Posted by: Flannista | October 02, 2009 at 10:10 AM
half-a: it's Bambi's mother who was killed, not his father, though he was probably killed, too.
Don't get me started on "Old Yeller."
Back to Bambi. My parents and sisters called me "Thumper" growing up because my feet were so huge. Thumper I can deal with. Those princesses and their princes coming in to save them and live happily ever after? I'll take the Christian fantasy over that fantasy in a heartbeat.
Posted by: Flannista | October 02, 2009 at 10:14 AM
Flann, I respectfully disagree that PM denies the dark side of life. To portray a "heaven" implies a "hell" ... and my inner artist goes WILD just imagining the wide-eyed images for PM hell. There could be a whole parody line, called "Tortured Moments."
Posted by: PEACEsista | October 02, 2009 at 10:23 AM
While a whole park devoted to PM isn't my cup o'tea, (esp. the part about dressing up doey-eyed children in military garb) at least the guy isn't charging you or forcing you to attend. It's simply his offering. Kinkade *does* do a lot of charitable work:
http://www.thomaskinkade.com/magi/servlet/com.asucon.ebiz.biography.web.tk.BiographyServlet
. . . so cut him some slack.
Flannista, I like a lot of the Rockwell, Kinkade, et al stuff. Speaks to me of simple times, simple pleasures, innocence, happiness, hope & love. I have never enjoyed "dark" art, precisely because it feels so negative and hopeless.
Posted by: Chrysosistah | October 02, 2009 at 10:30 AM
PEACE: You're an ARTIST!! I love the idea of "Tortured Moments"!! Brilliant!!
I know that you all are going to wish me to burn in hell, but when I first saw that angel sitting outside Resurrection Cave, I thought of PM Jesus hanging on the cross. I really did. I was horrified by how easy it was for me to GO THERE. My mammogram results will probably come back positive.
Now I'm picturing PM figurines in Ford's Theater on the evening of April 14, 1865 with a little PM John Wilkes Booth leaping to the stage. OMG, PM Auschwitz just popped into my head. Someone, slap me, please!!
Posted by: Flannista | October 02, 2009 at 10:31 AM
Consider yourself slapped.
My cup of tea most likely jives with yours, Flann, when it comes to what I might consider "art." Be it far from me, though, to determine that for anyone else.
Posted by: Carolyn | October 02, 2009 at 10:37 AM
This discussion is a huge digression from Half-a's original questions:
"Any parts of your innocent childhoods that you still hold onto? Sleeping Beauty? A favorite book? Or, have you lost your innocence?"
I look forward to your answers.
Posted by: PEACEsista | October 02, 2009 at 10:49 AM
Chryso -- there are a couple of the Rockwell paintings that I find really wonderful, such as the following:
http://www.normanadams.org/assets/images/NR-BlackGirlCops-F.JPG
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are the world's largest collectors of Rockwell's art. Did you know that? Next year, the Smithsonian is having a major retrospective of his work. I plan to go even though it's not the kind of art I prefer. He is a major American artist, however.
Thomas Kidade is whole other hairball for me. I not only dislike his paintings, I dislike how they are factory-produced. His paintings range in price depending on how much he's actually touched them with his own paintbrush. For example, if he painted the ENTIRE thing as an original, you pay out the wazoo. If a student whose been trained to paint just like him does the basic painting (a copy of one of Kidade's originals) and Kinkade comes in and adds that "special glow" you may less than wazoo. If a student paints the basic thing and also adds the "special glow', you pay less than that. A print is, of course, much less. It is not a piece of art; it is a product.
Chryso -- the two of us see the world very differently. Neither is right and neither is wrong. I learn a lot from you about appreciating the simpler things in life. Thank you. My experience of the world -- and this is just my experience -- is that it is not easy and mostly a challenge. I think that's because I lost my innocence when I was five years old.
Posted by: Flannista | October 02, 2009 at 10:56 AM
I hear you, PEACE, but I when I shared about "Tarzan of the Apes" in my 10:10 a.m. comment, I was sharing about my lost innocence. That is not a huge digression from half-a's questions, though it IS a far leap from Precious Moments.
Posted by: Flannista | October 02, 2009 at 11:01 AM