Christ, Our Mother heals the faithful Centurion’s pais. ©2017 Alfred Eaker.
“Alfred Eaker’s series of works are deeply felt journeys into sociopolitical satire. Each painting seems to be pulled from Marc Chagall’s dream furnace.” Bill Ross: Curator Thunder-Sky Art Gallery.
*Christ is modeled after Ohio poet Cheryl Townsend
Christ, Our Mother healing the Leper ©2017 Alfred Eaker.
“Alfred Eaker’s series of works are deeply felt journeys into sociopolitical satire. Each painting seems to be pulled from Marc Chagall’s dream furnace.” Bill Ross: Curator Thunder-Sky Art Gallery.
*Christ is modeled after Ohio poet Cheryl Townsend
The Sermon On the Mount as told by Christ, Our Mother ©2017 Alfred Eaker.
“Alfred Eaker’s series of works are deeply felt journeys into sociopolitical satire. Each painting seems to be pulled from Marc Chagall’s dream furnace.” Bill Ross: Curator Thunder-Sky Art Gallery.
*Christ is modeled after Ohio poet Cheryl Townsend
Christ, Our Mother and the Samaritan woman, according to St. John © 2017 Alfred Eaker .
“Alfred Eaker’s series of works are deeply felt journeys into sociopolitical satire. Each painting seems to be pulled from Marc Chagall’s dream furnace.” Bill Ross: Curator Thunder-Sky Art Gallery.
*Christ is modeled after Ohio poet Cheryl Townsend
St. John is modeled after Ohio artist Antonio Adams
Christ, Our Mother and the adulteress ©2107 Alfred Eaker.
“Alfred Eaker’s series of works are deeply felt journeys into sociopolitical satire. Each painting seems to be pulled from Marc Chagall’s dream furnace.” Bill Ross: Curator Thunder-Sky Art Gallery.
*Christ is modeled after Ohio poet Cheryl Townsend
Lazarus & The Rich Man (A parable, as told by Christ, Our Mother) ©2017 Alfred Eaker.
“Alfred Eaker’s series of works are deeply felt journeys into sociopolitical satire. Each painting seems to be pulled from Marc Chagall’s dream furnace.” Bill Ross: Curator Thunder-Sky Art Gallery.
*Christ is modeled after Ohio poet Cheryl Townsend
St. John is modeled after Ohio artist Antonio Adams
Opening with the ranting of a Pentecostal preacher into the mind of seven-year old Calvin Elkan, who in lieu of attention, creates art in a drawing pad as his derrière numbs atop a hard pew. A caricature of near monster features, Brother Cobweb is born, a minister of pseudo-satanic lunacy.
Growing up in a blue collar home with a younger, innocent brother, his over-worked, typical father, religiously crazed mother, and beacon of sanity and hilarity great-grandfather, Calvin is juxtaposed to creativity and suppression as the mother battles for his sinking soul against anything not in praise of God. Might I add that those battles were truly such. Abusive, spiteful and manipulative, mother Nancy was “Carrie’s” mother to the nth degree.
Needless to say, great-grandfather “Pop” (an atheistic Jew) is the comic relief in this drama. Calvin, still grappling with what to believe, is steadily leaning alee from the absurd. The ensuing disgust of his my-way-only mother is simmering like the fires of Hades. Bonding through music and creative imagination, Pop and Calvin sequester solitude in a bedroom off limits to the tyrannical mother.
When Pop passes, there is no safe place for Calvin. The abuse intensifies, as even his passive father defers to Nancy’s rages. But there is music. Sweet movements to quell. Savage beasts be damned!
Making it to art school, with scholarships, Calvin is instructed to study the predecessors of his preferred era. Professor Hillcrest nurtures. Calvin learns and flourishes. After a final attack from his mother, he moves out, barely surviving on meager wages. Life feels hopeless, he succumbs to despair.
Finally finding his niche with a group of artistic friends, Calvin gets into a gallery and begins a new phase of life. There is a woman whom he begins to hang out with and eventually relents to marrying her out of her bad home life. But it’s not for him. She is not the one.
Always there are men of religious beliefs that filter in, good or bad, to steer him. A life of subjugation renders him easily persuaded, but he does hold fast to his anti-stance against any holy rolling, tongues spewing ravers, welcoming the company of two Catholic priests.
Revelations surface, secrets expose themselves, attempts to rectify are extended. Calvin finds his soulmate, his place, and his release. As happy as such a life can be expected, there is a resolved ending. A hip hip hurray with even a resounding amen!
Snips of theological insight, musical and artistic education are an added bonus to an engaging read that should assuredly make you think hard on your own spiritual path. When and if Calvin creates his own church, I hope one comes nearby.
***
If you find this review helpful, you might consider giving a go to the first chapters of the novel here…
Cheryl A Townsend is a poet, photographer, and previous editor/publisher of Impetus/Implosion Press and owner of cat’s Impetuous Books.
Alfred Eaker is a prolific fine arts painter and muralist, an award-winning filmmaker and film critic, and a traditionally-published author. Following on the success of his debut novel, “Brother Cobweb,” Eaker is currently collaborating with Todd M. Coe on the related Graphic novel: “The Brother Cobweb Chronicles.” It will be available in the spring 2021. The audiobook version of Brother Cobweb is also being produced, and will soon be released too.
As an inquisitive American artist, he has always been deeply engaged in social, religious, and political climates. Eaker is currently working on a mural painting entitled “Elvis: An American Hymn.” Through it, Eaker is trying to bring affirming answers to issues of race, integration and hope so desperately needed at this moment in America.
(Featuring Cheryl Townsend as Christ)
Magnificat
Christ, Our Mother (Julian of Norwich)
The Wedding At Cana
The Baptism Of Christ, Our Mother
The Temptation of Christ, Our Mother
Good Samaritan (A parable, as told by Christ, Our Mother)
Lazarus &The Rich Man (A parable, as told by Christ, Our Mother)
Christ, Our Mother and the adulteress
Christ, Our Mother and the Samaritan woman, according to St. John
The Sermon On the Mount as told by Christ, Our Mother
Christ, Our Mother healing the Leper
Christ, Our Mother heals the faithful Centurion’s pais
Christ, Our Mother casting the demons into the swine
The Transfiguration of Christ, Our Mother
Mary & Martha
VIPERS
Christ, Our Mother throwing the moneychangers out of the temple
CHRIST, OUR MOTHER IN THE GARDEN OF AGONY
The Betrayal & Arrest of Christ, Our Mother
The Trial of Christ, Our Mother
Pontius Pilate condemns Christ, Our Mother
The Passion of Christ, Our Mother
Christ, Our Mother Falls
The Gospel of Contempt
Christ Meets Her Mother on the way to the cross
Christ, Our Mother meets the women of Jerusalem
Mary and the Beloved Disciple at the foot of the cross of Christ, Our Mother
The murder of Christ, Our Mother
Yellow Resurrection
Peter and John racing to the tomb of Christ, Our Mother
The Ascension of Christ, Our Mother
A Woman Clothed In The Sun
The Apocalypse Of Christ, Our Mother
Good Samaritan (A parable, as told by Christ, Our Mother) ©2017 Alfred Eaker.
“Alfred Eaker’s series of works are deeply felt journeys into sociopolitical satire. Each painting seems to be pulled from Marc Chagall’s dream furnace.” Bill Ross: Curator Thunder-Sky Art Gallery.
*Christ is modeled after Ohio poet Cheryl Townsend
The Temptation of Christ, Our Mother ©2017 Alfred Eaker.
“Alfred Eaker’s series of works are deeply felt journeys into sociopolitical satire. Each painting seems to be pulled from Marc Chagall’s dream furnace.” Bill Ross: Curator Thunder-Sky Art Gallery.
*Christ is modeled after Ohio poet Cheryl Townsend
