Collecting crucifixes is something Gary Fogel has always wanted to do, he says, but he didn’t get around to it until about four years ago. He now has more than 100.
“Once I start on something, it just kind of snowballs,” Fogel says. (He also collects tarot cards, Oaxacan lizard figures, Florida license plates, and Dimetrodon dinosaur figurines.) He’s not religious, but likes the imagery and stories that go along with religion. “When I was growing up, my father was Catholic, and he had this plaster Jesus cross that I remember.” Fogel gave the cross away years ago, but it’s stuck in his mind.
Fogel strives for diversity in his collection. “I try to go for the subtle differences in the Jesuses. I try not to get two that are the same. It varies in the way they’re done, or the way heads are pointing. Most of them go to the left.”
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