World War II Submarine Memorial,
Washington, DC

10’ X 8’ Bronze and Stained Glass

This commission is an outgrowth of the Stations of The Cross that were developed b y Leo Irrera, designer and sculptor and R. Leo Pelkington op, stained glass artist.  The sponsor ordered the window in memory of his father who was the skipper of a submarine during World War II.  In addition to the new technique of combining Sculpture with stained glass an interesting feature of this window that it is perhaps the only stained glass window to be viewed from the outside.  There is nothing behind the window but an emergency stairwell so it is never viewed from the interior.  It is lit from behind so as the day darkens the window lightens.  The window also received the approval of Ned Beach retired sub skipper and author of  the award winning “Run Silent Run Deep” 

 A key advantage of combining sculpture with stain glass is that it avoids the black hole effect (with the normal stained glass technique when there is no daylight outside  the window appears to be black) whereas with the combined technique the subject is always visible and with some well placed mini spots it can be very effective.