Ruminate Magazine: Faith in Literature and Art

Dan McGregor: Sacramental Engines

My recent work consists of what I call “sacramental engines”—painted mechanical contraptions that are intended to represent invisible spiritual forces. Resurrection has been a big theme for me of late. 

Bloodwheel taps into ancient traditions dealing with the legend of martyrs Erasmus and Catherine of Alexandria, as the torments of both involved wheels—Catherine being assailed by a spiked wheel and Erasmus having his intestines wrapped around a ship’s windlass. Exploring the Tertullian quote that “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,” I decided to combine this concept of wheel as torture instrument with the generally positive and motive concept of a waterwheel.

Mendicant Resurrection Engine is a catapult—a ballista, actually—for launching the bodies of dead monks (here represented by little paintings in coffins) into Heaven. It was inspired by a visit to the Capuchin cemetery in Rome, which contains the desiccated bodies of monks for visitors to see.

Exit Strategy 1 and 2 are contemporary re-imaginings of the eschatological events described in Matthew 24: “That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.” Each of the paintings shows an object left by the rapture “evacuee,” and a working wooden hand-cranked elevator is featured in the center of each.

Dan McGregor lives in Abilene, TX, where he teaches drawing and illustration classes at Abilene Christian University. He received an MFA in illustration from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2000. He likes poetry, monks, and old airplanes.