St. Michael the Archangel I

This is my favorite art quilt in my series of saints.  Unfortunately, I donated it to the school where I used to teach Spanish.  When I left Lowell to come to Prince Edward Island, I also left many students I had taught there in grades five to eight.  I asked the principal to hang this piece in the school where all the kids could see it.  Instead, it was stuffed behind a file cabinet somewhere, and was lost.  When I went back to school for a visit, this piece was nowhere to be found.  This made me very sad, since it was a wonderful piece and went totally unappreciated.  Worst of all, the students never got to see it.   I learned a lesson the hard way not to donate my artwork.

I have since completed another St. Michael Fighting Satan, and you will see it in future posts.  The original was 36" x 20" and was made of multiple layers of the brightest, blingy-est fabric and embellishments I could find.  St. Michael was dressed in shiny layers of stiffened holographic ribbon and sequins with lame wings and halo and a helmet made of silver holographic shreds.  The nebula background was hand-dyed silk damask and all the layers of red and orange fabric were tulle and other transparent fabrics.  Satan's tail was made from acrylic angora yarn.  Heads, hands and feet were made of polymer clay and Model Magic clay.  Satan's body was made of silver sequins.  The quilt was embellished with gold stars, beads, and red polymer hands reaching upward from the flames. 

Satan's other name is Lucifer, which means "bearer of light" in Latin.  Satan is Michael's sibling and equal, one of the archangels along with Michael, Raphael and Gabriel.  Angels have no gender; they are pure spirit, but they are like humans in that they were created with free will and could choose to obey God or not.  Lucifer and his buddies chose not to, and became bent on destruction and evil.  This scene shows Michael defeating Lucifer and throwing Lucifer into Hell.  Michael and Lucifer are both made of silver sequins to show they were created the same, but Satan made only bad choices while Michael made good ones.