JAMES AUER: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:The Visual Arts: Racine Church’s ‘Cloud’ Painitngs Keep the Mind on Matters Above: Wednesday, May 7, 1997

Racine – We Americans spend too little time looking up at the clouds and too much looking down at the pavement, possibly to find a coin.  By contrast, our ancestors studied the heavens and were healthier for it.

That seems to be the thinking behind “Clouds of Witnesses,” the multi-panel work that Karen Gunderson, a New York painter, with Racine roots, has completed for the sanctuary of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, 2219 Washington Ave.

Executed in oil on linen, the installation consists of two side paintings, measuring 7 by 21 feet, and a central group that measures 15 feet vertically.  All depict radiant cloud banks.  The effect is luminous, sunstruck, liberating.

Positioned centrally above the altar is a figure of Christ creates by a Danish woodcarver.  Gunderson said in an interview that she planned the installation to allow for the presence of the sculpture.  As light levels go up, the clouds appear to rise. 

Ironically, the size of he sanctuary puts the bog-scale compositions into perspective.  This, too, Gunderson took into account in composing the work.  She designed the side panels so they would be effective when “foreshortened,” or viewed from the front.

Wooden stretchers fro the two large side panels were specially constructed for the project by Wayne Kavalianskas, a skilled Wisconsin craftsman.  The installation’s multi-panel central section was framed and stretched to Gunderson’s specifications by a New York firm.