Becoming a famous artist and making money doing art wasn’t on the radar when James Hampton rented a carriage house for his special project. 

In 1950, a 41-year-old the General Services Administration janitor decided to prepare for Christ’s return to earth. 

Over the next 14 years, Hampton built a complex work of religious art called the “Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly.” The piece is based on biblical prophecies and several religious visions that Hampton had experienced.

He worked with various scavenged materials from his neighborhood including jelly jars, old furniture, light bulbs and hand-crafted elements from cardboard and plastic. 

Most of it was then wrapped in aluminum and gold foil, and put together with glue, pins and tape. He kept it to himself the whole time as well. The piece was discovered after his death, by his garage owner, who went to check why his rent had not been paid. 

VTSU Castleton art professor Oliver Schemm’s Professional Studio Art class took Hampton’s work as an inspiration for their project early this semester. They collected and used objects from the Fine Arts Center and the Wooldridge house and wrapped them all up in tin foil. 

“We’ve used eight, maybe ten rolls of tin foil,” Schemm said. 

Matthew Stoddard, one of the students in the class, described the effort further. 

“We tried to use two of each things, to have symmetry,” he said. 

The class have spent around three hours to create what Schemm called this “shiny, ridiculous, uncanny thing.”

“People like shiny things,” another student, Abigail Murphy added. 

Another student chimed in, “we’re all crows in a way.” 

Graphic design professor Bill DeForest, is going to be doing a collaborative drawing project for his Intro to Drawing class. 

The purpose of this project, Schemm said, was to show students that you can make art from nothing. You don’t need any expensive equipment or technology, as long as you have an interesting idea, and you stay committed to it.