Glory Train

1951

Color Serigraph

15” x 18” plate

This color serigraph is entitled This Train is Bound for Glory.  A serigraph is a print made by the silkscreen process where they use a stencil for the design. Silkscreening, or serigraphy, consists of applying stencils to a screen of silk or some metallic material. 

True to the title, this serigraph shows a train departing from a church in Copperville, Maryland and heading toward Heaven. If you look closely, you will see an angel welcoming the people of the church on the train, as well as an angel guiding or conducting the train. The artist created this piece after witnessing a performance of Copperville’s Moaney Quartet at the Copperville Church.  The lively performance with its rhythmic vocals must have reminded the artist of a locomotive engine about to take flight. It is interesting to note what appears to be Satan shoveling coal to power the locomotive engine.  Does this represent a triumph of good over evil? Why would Satan help power the train to Heaven by shoveling coal.  Is he now enslaved and forever condemned?