Hail, Holy Queen by Michael Koppa

Hail, Holy Queen is the product of my desire to work collaboratively with JoAnna Poehlmann, a respected elder in the Milwaukee artist community. We were introduced to one another in the late 1990s. Through our friendship, I learned JoAnna’s Catholic faith is integral to her body of work, which explores and celebrates the natural world with a wink and a nod. Observing her faith has sparked favorable childhood memories of my own, growing up in a Catholic family and parish. I have especially fond memories of a Vatican II era priest, Father Tom—casually known to all as F.T.—and his persistent adoration of Mary. He was an especially silly man whose antics as a gorilla delighted us as little kids and remained amusing to us as teenagers. But he also had a dramatically reverent side. I remember him having the lights dimmed after Saturday evening masses, and how the organ would begin to play while he walked slowly towards the candle lit statue of Mary, and how he filled the church with his beautiful and haunting voice singing the Salve Regina in a foreign tongue. I remember there was a climax about three fourths into it when the hair on the back of my neck stood up and my eyes seemed to force themselves shut and it felt like we were all in the presence of something incredibly holy. I realize now that I miss that feeling. I miss the man who could be so comically human one moment and so magically connected to the Holy Spirit the next. Praying the rosary is an ancient ritual within the Catholic faith that still appeals to me in a metaphorical way. With Hail, Holy Queen, I hope to present a reverence for Mary we can all appreciate, and join JoAnna in her celebration of creation—creation that could never be, were it not for our gracious mother, this beautiful planet we call Earth.