This work comprises a series of photographs conceived during a time when I needed greater contemplation and a connection to my surroundings as an artist. Particularly the world that God had created for me.

As I left Raleigh, N.C., I unearthed a small statue of St. Joseph which I had buried in front of my home. This was the last act before getting into my car to travel to Sarasota, Fla., for my new job.

Car packed, I couldn’t just toss St. Joseph in a box like an old shoe. The packing tape sat on the last sealed box. I grabbed it, made a loop, and secured “Joe” to the dash of my ’96 Buick Roadmaster Wagon. While Joe was the patron saint for selling your home, I knew him better as a patron saint of travelers, and so my journey began. The road in front of me with St. Joseph firmly in between.

An hour or so into my 11-hour journey I reached to turn the radio off as I was caught in contemplation with St. Joseph. Pondering his travels with Mary and Jesus, to Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth, and Jerusalem, I thought of how these pilgrimages that took many days or weeks were carefully planned and well thought out. No modern roads, mountainous terrain, and the need to stop for food, prayer, and rest. Not to mention other troubles that lurked. The annual pilgrimage just to Jerusalem was 70 to 90 miles walking at 2–3 miles an hour. These truly were well-invested journeys, and here I sat oblivious to everything around me as I was about to pound out 724 miles sitting in air-conditioned comfort with multiple beverage holders.

With my eyes, and now mind wide open I began to see myself pilgrimaging with the Holy Family. I felt myself being drawn into my surroundings without distractions from the radio and becoming acutely aware of the wondrous world God had place in front of me.

In some ways, it felt similar to the Canticle of the Creatures, where St. Francis wished to bring awareness of the wonders that God had created to travelers in hopes of celebrating nature’s divine connection. 

In honor of St. Francis’s Canticle, I present for you a journey to open your heart and to connect the beauty of nature to the Divine. The exhibition of work is broken into three sections reflecting St. Francis’s Canticle: Creation, Forgiveness and Peace, and Life’s Challenges.

Peter Rampson
Associate Professor of Graphic Arts
Alvernia University