Statue outside new Macon affordable housing units ‘inspires other people,’ artist says

The statue unveiled Monday in front of the Depaul USA Daybreak Day Resource Center at 174 Walnut St. is called “Sheltering” and it was created by well-known Canadian sculptor Timothy Paul Schmalz.

Along with its unveiling, the statue received blessings from community faith leaders and 200-plus community members there to see it, be part of its blessing and also to bless and tour Central City Apartments, a nearly-complete complex built next to Daybreak.

“Sheltering” depicts a flying dove covering a homeless man in repose with a blanket. Central City Apartments is an 82-unit facility that will offer relatively low-cost housing at anywhere from $400 to $800 a month depending on an income-based scale. Except 16 of the 82 are reserved for people Daybreak is helping. Macon’s Jeff Battcher, who is on the Depaul USA board and connected to its larger international counterpart, called the 16 apartments permanent supportive housing that he said will largely, but not exclusively, be for persons needing extended housing after being cared for at the new Phil and Alice Sheridan Health Center or released from other medical facilities.

Oh, did I forget to mention there’s a health center being built as part of the complex? One with a 12-bed, short-term respite care wing where those experiencing homelessness can receive shelter and attention?

I’ll just say here it took a remarkable – some say miraculous – amount of cooperation, effort, financing, fundraising and charitable thinking and giving to make it all happen and become operational in the next couple of months. The who’s who and dollars-and-cents facts are available in other stories.

Here, the focus goes to the statue which is fitting in name and design but, more than that, fitting in spirit and message.

I spoke with Schmalz who was in Macon for the unveiling.

“For more than 10 years I’ve been working on sculptures focused around Matthew 25 where it says that the least among us are considered sacred, as sacred as anything,” he said. “I think that heart, that idea, is one of the amazing gifts Christianity gave us and it’s really at the seat of our society. If we lose that, we lose our society, everything will collapse. So I think a sculpture like this is very important.”

The statue as it appears at Daybreak is a replica of an original Schmalz created which was blessed by Pope Francis at the Vatican, where it remains. Battcher, who isn’t Catholic, was at the Vatican for the blessing of the original because of his connections with Depaul and related groups working to end homelessness.

“When I saw that statue depicting the plight of homelessness and knew what we were doing in Macon to increase affordable housing and respite care and all – I just knew we wanted one to go here,” he said.

But Schmalz is very popular and his works are in high demand sitting in prominent places throughout the world. They are, in other words, not the easiest to come by. Schmalz’s most famous piece is called “Homeless Jesus,” which shows Jesus homeless, completely covered by a blanket on a park bench, save for his feet sticking out bearing the wounds of crucifixion.

Other of his many works include additional statements on homelessness, immigration, human trafficking and related concerns.

At the Vatican, Battcher began a conversation with Schmalz about needing a statue in Macon and asked him to please, “Put us at the head of your list.”

Further communications ensued — separate fundraising, giving and volunteering allowed “Sheltering” to be gifted for the site. Some say miraculously.

But back to the sculpture and sculptor.

“When you have a sculpture like this outside a building like this it becomes a visual ambassador,” Schmalz said. “It showcases what is happening and inspires other people. It’s contagious. I think using art to bring awareness is one of its great functions and our great responsibilities. It’s here 24/7 speaking and sharing what’s going on inside which I think is great. Sometimes we turn away from looking at poverty and homelessness because we only see the ugliness in it. A work of art can help us look closer, deeper and see the humanity and stir our compassion.”

Schmalz said that by tradition, only important buildings have statues out front.

“Now,” he said smiling widely, “we’re saying that about this place.”

As an artistic creator, I asked Schmalz if he felt special moments while working on a piece so representative of such a hurtful issue, on a piece filled with purpose, emotion and possibly the divine. Were there moments he found himself moved? In awe?

“Always,” he said. “I’m always present with my sculpture, I never take my finger off of it or lose touch. It’s been like that for the last 35 years I’ve been working on such pieces. I’ve developed a library of different shapes and different ideas and it’s almost like they can be taken and formed into a collage that creates a new sculpture with its own unique, purposeful meaning.

“I’m always aware that artwork has to work hard in our society or it will be invisible and not communicate what it has to say. This is true in sculpture because it has that fragility. ‘Sheltering’ has a universality with the dove and the life-size figure that pulls people into it because we are life-sized people, right? ‘Sheltering’ and my other works take me years to do – not necessarily to create the work itself – but to prepare and be readied and to come to the conclusion it has to be done. There is a spirituality involved.”

And many miracles, Battcher and others are saying, each represented in a statue formed specifically for Macon, though a replica. Representing miracles of effort, cooperation, funding and even that people care for other frail figures, not cast in metal, but walking, sleeping and living homeless out and about among us.

Sadly though, that solitary figure, save for the dove and blanket, in front of Daybreak speaks of greater need as well. For the 82 affordable housing units available to rent at Central City Apartments, Battcher said the last he heard was there were more than 200 who had filled out paperwork and were on the list for consideration.

More on Daybreak and its work is at www.depaulusa.org/programs/macon. Schmalz’s site is at www.timothypaulschmalz.com where you can see more of his work.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.