VENTURA : Exhibit Presents Artists’ View of War

“G. I. Jesus,” by artist Doug Lipton, shows Christ in combat fatigues with a halo of bayonets and guns.

Lipton said he worked on the piece, which resembles a framed shrine, for 48 hours without a pause so that he could finish it in time for a Ventura Arts Council show, titled “Artists Respond to the Threat of War.”

“I broke into tears. I felt all the anguish,” said Lipton, 43, a Vietnam veteran.

The show at the Momentum Gallery in Ventura will continue through Saturday.

“It’s not a political show,” said Maureen Davidson, council executive director. “It’s a human response.” A war in the Persian Gulf, she said, is “something that will affect us all.”

Other works in the show include sculptures using crosses, flags and plastic war toys to make their statements. Visitors are invited to write their feelings about the gulf crisis on butcher paper that is hung on one wall, Davidson said.

The gallery at 34 N. Palm Ave. is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.