Remember at the end of Terminator (the first one), where whatshername is in a jeep, in the desert, getting gas at some deserted gas station in the middle of nowhere, with a German Shepherd?

That’s what Zeba is doing now. Heading down to some small village in Mexico. She needs help. She’s at the end of her rope. And she’s been promised help, and more intriguing, people in much the same condition as she finds herself now, lost, needing a friend, a place to live off the grid.

This intricate sculpture was placed in a Christian ministry center in Pampa, Texas, and is surrounded several other religious pieces of artwork. The sculpture depicts Michael from chapter 12 of the Bible’s book of Revelations, representing the continuous fight between good vs. evil. The angel Michael is symbolically wearing the armor of God with the sword of truth and righteousness as found in Revelations. The sculpture weighs over five hundred pounds, is over nine feet tall, and contains and eight foot wing span.

Wikipedia says: “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven” (Rev. 12:7). As recounted by the Revelation of Saint John, at the end of the world war will break at between Heaven and Hell, between good and evil. As the commander of the Army of God, Archangel Michael leads the other angels in the fight against evil, represented in this picture by a seven-headed dragon. Each of the dragon’s heads represents one of the seven deadly sins. Durer chose to capture this fight between good and evil at the moment when Saint Michael is thrusting his spear into one of the heads. Surrounding Saint Michael are three other angels ready to attack. Beneath the fighting lies a calm and serene landscape with mountains and a small town, highlighted by a church with a tall spire, in the distance. At the bottom in the center of the page Durer has placed his distinctive “AD” monogram that is in all of his engravings.

I love learning about angels,  not just angels, but how mankind had interpreted “angels” since the concept began.

When I found the image I used for the previous post, I, of course, had to do some research. I found Raoul Jossett at Texasscapes.com and now I want to travel Texas photographing and seeing his work up close.

This severe angelic guard, almost as tall as the trees, stands over the fallen Texans in La Grange, Texas.

Raoul Jossett

Born in France in 1899, Raoul Jossett was trained at the Paris School of Fine Arts, the Lycee of Lyons and Paris and studied under famed sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. Between 1920 and 1926 he created more than 15 memorials in France. He was awarded the Rome Prize in 1923 and the Prix Paris for the years 1924, 1925 and 1926.

He left Europe for the United States in 1933 and received his first commission carving two 45 foot granite Indians for the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge at Vincennes, Indiana. The following year, while working on two major Chicago works, Raoul became Citizen Josset.

At Monument Hill just south of La Grange, Josset’s huge bronze angel guards the crypt containing the remains of Texans killed in the Mier-Sommerville expedition.

In September 1848, the remains of Texans killed in the 1842 Dawson Massacre and the 1843 “Black Bean Death Lottery” were reburied at this site in a sandstone vault. The Kreische family did its best to care for the grave during their ownership of the property, but it suffered from lack of formal oversight. In 1905, the state authorized acquisition of .36 acres here, and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas raised funds for a new cover for the tomb in 1933. During the 1936 Texas Centennial celebration, the 48-foot shellstone shaft with a stylized, Art Deco-influenced mural was erected to mark the mass grave more prominently. Local citizens purchased 3.54 acres as a donation to the state for parkland in 1957.