Russ Goodman’s artwork resides in churches and other buildings in every region of Canada. For 50 years the 75- year-old stained glass artist, who now lives in Kelowna, has cut and assembled glass to tell epic Biblical stories and themes in church windows. This spring he was honored by the Governor General of Canada for his most noteworthy work — 12 giant windows depicting the floral emblems of the 10 provinces that adorn the House of Commons, which Goodman — along with the help of his wife and three young sons — completed in the early 1970s.
At a March 21 ceremony, Goodman was presented with the Governor General’s Visual and Media Arts Award, which carried with it a cheque for $15,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts for lifetime achievement. Although Goodman’s notoriety stems from the windows at Parliament Hill, he says one of his favorite works centers on the themes inherent in Revelations and can be viewed at Christ Church Cathedral in Toronto. “I was having a long stay in the hospital, which gave me time to think about Revelations… I didn’t think I was going to get out,” says Goodman. The artist began to plan the window “much to the consternation of the nurses” which eventually became one of his hallmark pieces. “It’s an abstract and different window all-together,” he says.
“Every time you approach a window, you want to be more original,” says Goodman, adding that a stained glass artist can lose their edge if they continually churn out “commercial” pieces with standard Christian themes like the “good shepherd,” and the “light of the world” without considering their deeper implications. “A window has to have a message, especially in a church,” he says. “When I work on something, I concentrate on little details. I have to feel that the congregation is getting something out of looking at the window.”
To achieve this purpose, Goodman often merges themes and stories from the Old Testament with those in the New Testament. In one example, he was designing a window to tell the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac on an altar. “Isaac had to carry his own wood. In trying to relate the story to the New Testament, I thought of Christ carrying his wooden cross,” he says. The result was a work of art that linked Christ’s sacrifice to the sacrifice Abraham was ready to make.
Goodman has made windows for over 700 churches across the country, but sadly he has no works presently in BC. Decades ago, he made windows for a preparatory school chapel in Vernon, but the whereabouts of those works are now unknown. He doesn’t attend one church regularly in Kelowna, but Goodman does go to services at Anglican, Lutheran and United Churches in the area. “I’ve never thought [of becoming a Catholic] but I’ve spent a lot of time working in Catholic churches,” he says. “One priest in particular gave me some great insights. He suggested I look into the seven sacraments and create something that includes them as they are used in the Bible.”