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'Last Supper' Sculpture Adorns Minnesota Church
BROOKLYN CENTER, MN (August 13, 2001) - The Last Supper is one of the focal points when churches think of the life and death of Jesus Christ. At Brookdale Covenant Church in Minnesota, one parishioner has made certain the event's significance won't be forgotten.
Bob Johnson used a painting of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci as his inspiration for a fiberglass sculpture of the event described in the Bible. The 79-year-old has donated the 13-foot-long structure to Brookdale Covenant Church after working on the project on and off for a year. The sculpture is being displayed in the church foyer and will be moved into the sanctuary this fall. It will be dedicated on World Communion Sunday, October 7.
Johnson and his wife, Mary Lou, joined Brookdale Covenant three years ago and Johnson worked on the sculpture as a way to praise the Lord. He calls the ivory-colored sculpture, which is five-and-a-half feet tall and weighs 160 pounds, a dream come true.
"For years I thought the communion service could be so much more meaningful," said Johnson, who helped build an eight-foot statue depicting an angelic figure rising on a cloud entitled The Rapture. "I've had so much experience in doing large and small things that I knew
I had the know-how to do it. But when I pulled it (the sculpture) out of the mold it was flexible.
"I used fiberglass, which is a 'happy medium material' between the crazy extremes of plaster and bronze," Johnson continued. "It weighs 160 pounds, but I could handle it - I could flip it around quite handily - and I've made four handles, so people can move it very pleasantly."
While in the Navy, Johnson began serious work in outdoor display art by carving a horse out of a 2-by-6 board and selling it for $10. He started taking art courses and began working on building parade floats. He eventually made his mark by creating numerous sculptures for businesses.
In addition to his outdoor display art, Johnson worked for a company that makes 30-by-180-foot covers for barges.
Among Johnson's most noteworthy sculptures is the head of a Guernsey cow for a local dairy, a 10-foot octopus that adorned an area car wash shop and a 28-foot bald eagle on the campus of Northwestern Bible College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was commissioned to create three life-sized trees for Disney World in Florida and made a 12-foot-high bulldog for his high school alma mater in Becker, Minnesota.
"It's kind of neat the way little kids respond to it (the cow's head)," said Johnson - the creation was featured on the cover of a sign magazine. "It's the type of work that's so labor intensive that it's tough to make a living wage. But, I like to turn out things that please my eye and if I like it, I'm not far off from the general public."
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