A life of poverty, illness, and crushing sorrow did not prevent Chester Cornett from establishing a reputation as a highly inventive chair maker in the 1950s and 1960s. Working within the craft traditions of southeastern Kentucky, he created handsome pegged and slat-backed armchairs, rockers, and folding chairs from a variety of local woods, weaving seats from hickory bark. Although he learned the techniques of chair making from his grandfather, Cal Foutch, Cornett was an innovator. Some of his more idiosyncratic constructions combined chair elements with bookcases and other furniture forms.

According to a story published in several exhibition catalogs, Cornett dreamed sometime in 1968 that eastern Kentucky was going to be engulfed in a great flood, which he associated with the Second Coming of Christ. He built a twenty-foot ark, complete with a seven-foot cabin for passengers, that he hoped would carry him and his family to safety. He also created this figure of the crucified Christ, which he affixed it to the bow of the vessel. Although the flood did not occur as expected, a subsequent storm carried the ark away. The sculpture was saved, and Cornett reworked it several times until it took its present form.

In another version of the story, Cornett created this powerful figure during a time of intense sorrow occasioned by marital discord and loneliness. He moved from Kentucky to Indiana, and it was there that he carved this figure, linking his own sufferings to those of Christ on the cross. He erected the figure in front of his home. The now indistinct inscription read: “The Coming Agin / thie will be Coming / One a Cloud When / He Comes agin Les All / Be Redy to go Out And meet / HIM WHIM OR LORD COMES.”

Gerard C. Wertkin, "Crucifix," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 384.