What happens when art meets abortion?

"Empty Red Shoes" by Judith Gait ("On Abortion" series)

Judith Gait paints tragic and gruesome things because of a series of legal decisions. Both the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Supreme Court of the United States are the offenders provoking her to do this.

An American artist living in England for decades, Gait is deeply concerned over the heaps of very small dead infants dumped across both nations. In response she created a body of work to express her anguish at what was happening.

At first Gait handled abortion delicately, with subtlety and metaphor: empty red shoes, dead flowers and droopy paper dolls. She's still using these symbols but adds some new ones, along with more passion and intensity.

"St Augustine tells us that prayer is like silent shouting," Gait quotes. "Sometimes the same could be said about drawing. If it is to be any use, it needs to be as intense as the shout which has its origin deep within our soul."

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Viewers can see her new series "On Abortion" at a solo show in Bristol, United Kingdom, running from Dec 8-13 (more info below). About 20 drawings and paintings all center on this pro-life theme.

"These are mixed media works on paper," Gait explained "but the topic is etched in my heart."

You can tell Gait thought long and hard about abortion and its ramifications – spiritually and politically. In an unusual artist's statement, she posits several fantasy paths for the souls of aborted ones. It's not Biblical, but Gait is well aware of that. (She uses Scripture deftly in other places.) "The abortee's orphanage is a cosmic waiting room" where, Gait tells us, they sing in "low mournful tones."

Scenarios of babies substituting for angels and incarnating as birds or flowers are for effect and consolation, not doctrine. You can see this in her "Pink Rose." The disengaged, dangling rose hovers over a shadowland. A scarlet cord that runs through several pieces as well as a turbulent sky where the "clouds" are full of suspended children.

"Pink Rose" by Judith Gait ("On Abortion" series)

Gait is joined by an anonymous friend who penned narratives for her paintings that will be matched up for the show. She calls these "The Meditations" and believes his fiery contributions make the work come alive. "I feel privileged to be a part," she says of working on this project with her mysterious peer.

Over an almost monochrome painting of Gait's ("Sunflowers"), the Unknown Poet unleashes a tide of angst, mourning and woe. The flowers are shriveled and blackened and a feeling of lost sun and fruitfulness pervades it. With no direct reference to abortion, the poet's words bring out the artist's intent.

Warning that an age of "quarrel and destruction" is here, boding of the apocalypse and chaos, Poet X refers to Gait's molding plants:

Among the tumult there is a silent sunflower world being destroyed, on an industrial scale, stripped of all colour, identity and humanity. ... Hidden from view their short lives cast in perpetual shadow, their one reality is their mother's womb and this place of sanctuary has been made a death row chamber, a twenty four week ticking Tot.

Poet X has a personal stake in this. He lost a child to abortion and his anger is clear in some places. "They will one day give Nuremburg witness to their own bloody story," he solemnly prophesizes, in the style of Jeremiah.

Gait is becoming more agitated in her images as well. Perhaps it was the Planned Parenthood debacle cracking across America. We haven't heard anything this ghastly since Hitler was bombing London and word was trickling out about they were doing in the camps.

"One Stone" by Judith Gaits ("On Abortion" series)

I was riveted by Gaits' painting "One Stone." It troubles me when I view it but I can't exactly say why. The only clear image is a predatory bird with extended talons moving through the background. Nothing is explicitly violent or sensational. No bloody blades or appropriating pop culture clichés (Texas Chain Saw-style) to aid her, as so many artists do now. Her painting is extremely simple with little objectively connecting it to an aura of derangement and collapse. Yet "One Stone" has the most disturbing impression of violence, that something unclean and horrible is taking place. It's a perfect image of abortion.

Perhaps Poet X had this painting in mind when he wrote the following:

What will the condemned baby experience before the hammer blow of destruction? It will witness an unknown foe dressed in a doctor's apron and a surgical mask. The child will feel only that last stab of pain. ... It is done; the boulder of innocence has been scraped. The empty womb. The bird has flown. Lark ascending.

Chains of linked paper dolls are a theme Gait uses to signify the shouts, playfulness and energy of millions we will never hear. Even the secular world is beginning to take notice. Japan and Germany are in danger of extinction because of a dearth of babies, and they're not the only ones. Now a flood of writing pours out as professionals nearing retirement suddenly realize it would be really nice to have a family now. Abortion isn't the only reason for this, but many can thank that single operation for their loneliness and lack of assistance. It's a bitter pill to swallow.

Gait's show will be hung in the Great Hall of St. Mary's on the Quay in Bristol, which should be an amiable crowd. But even in church, the subject of abortion has been so laden with controversy that she isn't sure of the reception. Gait is like a pioneer venturing into new territory with this. I wish her many more venues and success.

Why are most artists determined to avoid touching abortion? What would happen? Gait throws out a subdued SOS in polite British style: "Personally I think it would be great if I could find more artists who are interested in finding inspiration from the Bible, especially in these times of difficulty and trouble."

Great? It would be a miracle; but miracles are part of Christian canon. Now we wait and see.

Judith Gain Exhibition December 8-13, 2015 at St. Mary's on the Quay BS1 1EB next to the Bristol Hippodrome. 10-4 daily

Judith's work is in public and private collections in this country and abroad – most recently the collection of the Dean of Chichester Cathedral. She is profiled in "Who's Who in Art."