Reliquary of Father Junipero Serra 1941

This "Reliquary of Father Junipero Serra" by William Kieckhofel looks like it was carefully constructed with pencil and watercolor. I’m imagining Kieckhofel making this, maybe hunched over a table, meticulously layering washes of color to create a sense of depth and texture. The limited color palette—red, green, and grey—gives it a kind of earthy, grounded feel. I’m drawn to the way the circular medallions are painted within the larger oval; each one contains a symbolic fragment from the life of Father Serra. It's interesting that the artist chose watercolor. Its transparency lends the work a delicate, almost ephemeral quality, as if he wanted to capture not just the physical presence of a reliquary but something more intangible. This feels similar to the work of other outsider artists like Henry Darger or Martin Ramirez, who used simple materials to create worlds of incredible complexity. It’s like all these artists were in an ongoing conversation, trying to figure out how to make something holy, something meaningful, out of the everyday. And isn't that what painting is all about?