In the Land of Elvis, Home of the Strange, This is Even Stranger...

"An artist who can't speak English, a 22-year-old just out of college, and an insurance company president walk into a graveyard....

It sounds like the opening line of a bad joke, but it's actually how Crystal Shrine Grotto got built." (1)

Pull into the depths of Memphis Memorial Park Cemetery, cross this concrete bridge and, behold...

 

"The Grotto was the idea of Elliot Clovis Hinds, who sold his life insurance company to build Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis. Hinds thought his graveyard should be filled with inspiring art, not tombstones -- a Memphis version of Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles. Specifically, he wanted a man-made cave, encrusted with real rock crystals, that would tell the story of Jesus."(1)

 

 

 

 

 

"One day in February 1935, vision shook hands with genius. That is, the tall and distinguished Hinds met the short, proud Mexican Artist Señor Dionicio Rodriguez. Over the next eight years, their unlikely partnership as patron and artist would produce a treasure trove of folk art in Memphis that to this day attracts visitors from all around the world. No one knows where he got his training or what he knew of other artists doing similar work. Rodriguez called his method el trabajo rustic, or rustic work." (2)

 

"Visitors came to Memorial Park on Sunday afternoons to watch the curious little man work. To make his sculptures, Rodriguez would first create a support structure of steel and copper tubing; he never welded but wired these pieces together for strength. Over this he would shape a rough form out of wire mesh, filled with rubble. Then with one sack of cement at a time, adding no sand, he applied this wet cement to the form, shaping and carving it with his hands, with twigs or kitchen utensils - forks, spoons
and knives. The sculpture took shape as Rodriguez added layer upon layer of cement. While the cement was still wet he added stains and dyes he mixed to give it color. 

Rodriguez jealously guarded the secrets of his trade, especially the formulas he created for coloring the concrete. He worked in a tent where no one could see him mixing the colors and stains in glass jars. Sometimes he kept these jars in the trunk of his car, and if anyone approached he quickly slammed down the trunk lid. When he emptied or finished with a jar, he would soak the label off, tear it up, throw it away and break the jar." (2)

 

 

 

"Rodriguez threw himself into the project, spending parts of the next six years digging a 60-foot deep cavern, lining it with sculpted cement and five tons of quartz crystal, and designing ten niches and artistic backgrounds for Gospel-story statues (The stories were chosen by Hinds)." (1)

"Rodriguez was not a people-sculptor, and when he left the project in 1941 most of its Gospel niches still lacked statuary. They stayed that way for decades. That's when David Day came along, 22 years old, with a masters degree in figurative art. Working in limestone and wood, Day gave Crystal Shrine Grotto its final veneer of weirdness, with modernist sculpture...Day added his final artwork in 1981, completing the project 46 years after Rodriguez began it." (1) 

 

" Crystal Shrine Grotto, according to the cemetery, attracts over 100,000 visitors a year. Rodriguez's satellite creations, just outside the cave -- the Tomb of Machpelah, the Pool of Hebron, and a walk-thru Abraham's Oak -- are frequent photo spots for high school seniors, quinceaneras, and wedding parties that don't mind posing in a graveyard." (1)

(1) https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11606

(2)  https://www.memorialparkfuneralandcemetery.com/about-us/

A word about the photographs: They were, obvious to some, taken at various time, with different cameras and, sometimes, in difficult conditions. Visiting the Grotto when there are no other visitors is a hit-and-miss proposition. Doing so when weather is good and all the lighting is working is an even rarer occurrence. The cave is actually tiny - from the entrance to the manger scene in the back is approximately 7 paces; from side to side, no more than 11 paces. It only takes three or more people to make a crowd in such a small space. I will return often, hoping for better detail shots with better lighting, but in the meantime, this is what I've got. Oh, and if you come to visit, on the back side of the Grotto complex, directly across, is the grave of Issac Hayes - Shaft, John Shaft!.