State of Grace: Larry Gross, Guest Artist
October 27 @ 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
At the next State of Grace, we have invited artist Larry Gross to come for a special re-dedication of his 4ft. x 22ft. intricate assemblage that he had created for Concordia University’s 75th anniversary in 1980.
Hanging in the Hagen Campus Center until the campus closed in 2020, this fabulous piece of art made its way to our Parish Hall/Community Center with Martin’s vision and dedication to saving it from the wrecking ball. With the help of Martin and Phoebe’s son Timothy Elfert, it was re-installed it this past spring.
Larry Gross
Larry Gross was trained in art at Concordia Teacher’s College in Nebraska from 1976-1978. He completed his Master’s degree from Portland State University while teaching art classes at Concordia University in Portland. He taught a variety of classes there for 30 years including Art Appreciation, Drawing, Painting, Stained Glass, Art History and Art in the Christian Church.
He retired from full-time teaching in 2009 and continues to work in works in mixed media using watercolor pencils, acrylic paint and wood assemblages. His subject matter varies from scriptural interpretations to representations of planet earth and its place in the universe. Mr. Gross combines photos of earth taken by Apollo astronauts with photos of the stars in and beyond our galaxy. His style takes on the appearance of stained glass pursuing a sense of the sacred in all things.
Awards he has received include Oregon Art Educator of the Year and Artist in Residence at Trinity Lutheran Church in Portland. Larry is the son of the late pastor Richard E. Gross and Edith Gross, who encouraged Larry to pursue the making of liturgical and ecclesiastical art. This includes exploring how faith and art interact through individual artworks as well as projects created for the church. In recent years, he has made illustrations of the Psalms. He has designed stained glass projects and liturgical furnishings for a number of churches including the font, altar, processional cross and “witness windows” at St. Luke’s Lutheran in Bellevue, WA. Other churches with furnishings and stained glass he designed and/or built include Christ the King Lutheran in Tigard, Trinity Lutheran in Portland and Prince of Peace Lutheran in Portland.
