Gordon Smith. “Eggbeater Jesus” or “Cosmic Christ”. 1966-73 & 2016-22. Huntsville Alabama.
Yesterday, i saw a video of two comics who were visiting a church, at random, in Whitesburg Alabama. For a lark, the one mentioned [a possible]First Baptist Huntsville to a congregant. He just made a guess of its existence, there is no shortage of Baptist churches in the South, and they number them like New York City numbers elementary schools. And she said, Eggbeater Jesus? Well, it exists and is a roadside attraction. Huntsville calls itself Rocket City. Apollo's Saturn rockets were made there. So when the Baptists were going to build a new church, they chose a glass mosaic that spanned seven arches after the seven churches mentioned at the beginning of the Apocalypse/Revelation. As soon as it was installed, pieces started to fall. After so many years, they decided for a fix. They were told, it wouldn't work. It would have to be redone, and it was redone by Italians.
So, i started using the computers' search engines, using the terms: Protestant art, American Protestant art, American Christian art, Contemporary Christian art, Baptist art, Southern Baptist art. The searches did not help. They found the Reformation's rejection of Catholic art, depictions of John the Baptist, and a few others that didn't fit. In a couple of scholarly articles that needed subscriptions, and showed part of a page; the names Warner Sallman, and Thomas Kinkade [sic] were mentioned.
I touched upon this before [click], also, and. We do not do church in the same way.
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postscriptum noon 24 April 2023: 
Now, there is some comparison to Notre Dame's 1964 “Touchdown Jesus/The Word of Life”. Which is better art, and religious but not ecclesial, and it stayed in place without crumbling. With Jesus there are many other people, representing what is in a library: historical figures, writers, saints of learning, et cetera.
I was once on campus in 1988(?). Touristed with my nephew, and kicked an
imaginary field goal on the football field. This was before
inexpensive, digital cameras. I cribbed the foto supra from nd.edu. I have seen
other fotos of it. Light, and angle, and perspective make different
colors appear. The mural is made of panels of 81 different stone varieties.
Millard Sheets was an artist that did many outdoor mosaics, and murals on prominent buildings. Sheets was a California regional realist painter. I haven't studied if it is so, but American regionalist art has some affinity to the spirit of Vatican II.
Also, there was another Touchdown Jesus. It had other names: King of Kings [official], the most descriptive was “Big Butter Jesus”. It has a few quintessential American Evangelical Protestant qualities. They do not do subtlety. They go for loudness on a budget. It was in Monroe Ohio, next to Interstate 75, north of Cincinnati. It existed from 2004 to 2010. This was part of a 'megachurch' [non-denominational (Baptist)]. The statue was in the baptismal pool. Other fotos show a pale yellow color. Closer views showed the surface to appear as applied pats of not quite solid material. The skeleton was shaped like a goal post, and most of the volume was styrofoam, the surface was fiberglass. The overall texture, and color reminded people of the giant butter sculptures in state fairs. It was struck by lightning, and became Fireball Jesus. [click] It has been replaced by another huge statue, Hug Me Jesus, designed by CAD software. It is better, sort of like a South American Mountain Jesus as if designed by Mormons, and the Macy Parade.
foto by Rob Lambert
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n.b.: not one of these three fotos are mine
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