NATCHITOCHES – Natchitoches artist James Borders unveiled a sculpture that honors the memory of his late wife, Lisa, who lost her battle with breast cancer in 2018 at age 49.  The soaring metal monument, “Faith,” stands about 40 feet tall at Trinity Baptist Church in Natchitoches and was two years in the making. The sculpture also honors Avis Borders Fletcher, James’ mother, and Margaret Pauline Chesser, Lisa’s mother. Both passed in 2020.

At the June 19 unveiling, which drew a crowd of family and friends wearing pink for breast cancer awareness, Borders explained the concept behind the sculpture.

“The central structure, the rectangle, represents the church,” he said.  “It contains the trinity that is symbolized by three spears. The church is open, with the negative space, to always represent new flocks and being able to let them in. There are seven arcs that represent the creation and the day of rest.  The two vertical arcs if you look to one side, you can see is the fish symbol.”

The sculpture sits on a brick base with a plaque surrounded by brick pavers placed in memory of others. An emblem on the plaque depicts a sculpture Borders made for his wedding to Lisa.

Lisa Borders was a longtime member of Trinity Baptist Church, located at 527 Howard St. in East Natchitoches. She also served Natchitoches Parish as a legal assistant judicial administrator to Judge Desiree Dyess and the 10th Judicial District Court.

In 2019, Borders, a former professor of art at Northwestern State University, orchestrated the creation of the Lisa Chesser Borders Permanent Student Art Collection, housed in NSU’s Academic Success Center in Watson Library, and the Lisa Chesser Borders Endowed Meraki Scholarship, created through the NSU Foundation. Student work on display in the Borders collection at Watson Library is for sale to donors for $300 for each piece.  Upon purchase, $250 will go to the student artist while $50 support the scholarship.  Acknowledgement of each donor will be placed along with the piece in the permanent collection.

Borders explained the concept of “meraki” in which one puts “soul, creativity and part of themselves into their work.”

Borders persevered to complete the monument despite the obstacles set forth in 2020 and earlier this year, but said he proceeded on faith.

“Its’ been two years of work, two years of trying to learn to be patient, but also a lot of things have happened to all of us.  We’ve all lost loved ones.  We’ve had hurricanes, weather, freezing, but we made it through.  We did it together.  Maybe we should come together more often and put all the silly things aside and support each other better,” he said.

Friends can also contribute to the NSU scholarship by visiting https://www.northwesternstatealumni.com/lisa-borders/.