===== From ph.gibone@wanadoo.fr: Nice light, nice wood texture, wrong round, or did I miss something ? ===== From rgow@lanset.com: A very nice woodgrain, but it should run lengthwise on the vertical post. ===== From kingofmycastle@gmx.net: Where is the surrealism? ===== From kevinq2000@yahoo.com: What did you make, and why? ===== From hildurka@simnet.is: Nice image, but the composition is strange. Foreground is not right. ===== From steveb@digiverse.net: nice wood texture. as surreal parables go, its been overdone over too many millenia and too many cultures to be novel anymore. ===== From p.gibellini@teinos.com: The light coming from the clouds makes a very interesing effect. The effect could be better if you rotate by 90 degrees the vein of the wood of the vertical piece of the cross. In my opinion the perspective is too distorted. ===== From intertek@one.net: There have been more paintings of the crucifixion than pieces of the = true cross and yet I've never seen one quite like this. Usually Christ = is still hanging there and we viewers are looking up at him. That = "looking up" business is a pictorial trick to make the subject more = powerful and/or to give reverence to the subject. By putting the cross = at eye level, after the big event, you've made the subject uniquely = personal. We can examine the cross (you can't do that if there's a body = hanging from it). We can see the size of it relative to ourselves = (better than if it were up on a hill). But most perplexing - it is = vacant. Like looking at a picture of an empty electric chair, it's ready = for anyone willing to step up. But it also raises the question about = where is Christ. If you are a good Catholic you would say he's been = taken away to his rocky tomb or that his spirit has risen on the beam of = light to his Father's side but what ever happened this is a picture = without God. Yes, most of the pictures ever made do not have Jesus in = them. But your picture is supposed to have Jesus in it. That's just how = it's done. A crucifixion without Jesus is like a tofu sausage! It's just = unnatural. Maybe you'd find Jesus if you had Poser. But that still = doesn't put him in the picture. Forgive me for my ranting. This is a new = view of an extremely well traveled topic because of the lack of Jesus = and by bringing the cross into our personal viewing space. I have to tip = my hat to you regarding your original approach. I wish you had taken more care with the image. It's really a very simple = design which means that every little detail counts. Why is there no = blood on the cross? Why is the texture map on the vertical beam pointing = horizontal rather than vertical? Why are the nails round (these were = made by blacksmiths and would have a square cross section). How is the = horizontal beam attached to the vertical beam - I don't see nails or = rope. It's been a while since I read the Bible, but I think there were = other crosses and that it was on top of a hill (so town's people could = look up at it and be reminded who's boss). From a 21st century point of = view the beam of light makes the image look like a scene from the = television show Cops. It's just like the spotlight from a helicopter. = It's a tacky gimmick (like a halo) to show that this is a religious = thing. Look, there's not anyone on earth that hasn't see a cross. = Everyone knows the story. Even vampires know what it means. If you were = going to make a cross that someone else was crucified on - like a common = criminal from 32 AD - then you'd have to find some trick to let viewer's = know that this wasn't "THE CROSS". So ditch the spotlight! I'll bet most of the comments about your image will be that it's not = surrealism. I think I'd agree with that. If you are a Catholic you would = say that this is historical fact - nothing odd at all. If you said = something more about your image my interpretation of it might be = different. If you said "there's nothing more surreal than people who = believe in Jesus", or some other rational for a Christian image in a = surreal competition such as you were moved by the one that Dali made = then your image would not seem out of context. All in all I'd say that this is an interesting image that is probably = off topic but deserved more commitment. Michael Dali's crucifixion: = http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/virtual/portrait/dali-christ.jp= g ===== From file: Notable for composition ===== From file: This is what we call "Jesus Pollution," and makes people think bad things about Christians. I fell that the author would have entered this picture whatever the topic, and defended it with the same frothy-mouthed fervor.