A PRIVATE PLACE TO WORSHIP: 

RESURGENCE IN PRAYER ON THE HOME FRONT

October 5, 2001.  Bakersfield, CA – “The dawning of the new millennium has sparked an interesting trend toward making our lives more meaningful and sacred, spawning many small, private places of worship across our country.  These altars are a contribution to that process,” says Sig Blackmon, designer and manufacturer of the beautiful and intriguing line of small, personal devotional altars he sells via the Internet and at boutiques and art galleries nationally out of his shop in Bakersfield.

Even for those who do not give merit to things metaphysical or spiritual, current events facing this nation have driven many to a higher power seeking solace and answers. 

Laura Chester, author of Holy Personal, details the journey of many pilgrims seeking to make worship a more meaningful and private affair in their own homes and back yards.  These altars and shrines are a religious expression of a very personal nature in very personal spaces. 

Taking his cue from his own spiritual journey and those of family and friends, Blackmon created his first altars to sit gracefully on a tabletop, some even inconspicuously. 

“I didn’t come from any formal religious background, and when I was finally introduced to a few I still felt disconnected, an outsider,” relates Blackmon.

“The revelations I had come to about my spiritual beliefs were simple and direct, and needed expression and devotion privately.”  He conceived of the altars in quiet time of meditation and prayer, built some for friends of differing faiths and stumbled into his passion, selling by word of mouth to start.

Blackmon never reproduces the same altar twice, preferring to let each one stand as a testament to a creative higher power. He does, however, offer an ensemble of unique and unusual altar objects to house within the miniature chapels depending on the devotee’s prescribed beliefs.

“The Christian fundamentalist doesn’t want the same devotional accouterments as the Christian mystic, Catholic or Buddhist believer.  I honor our differences, while being mindful of our oneness.  My hope is that, no matter what faith or denomination, the altar is used as an instrument of prayer, meditation and peace.”

Copyright © 2001 Debra Blackmon, all rights reserved. 

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