Artist Statement
My recent work explores the human condition of suffering, pain and death, while drawing upon deeper eternal questions often contemplated, but rarely vocalized. I have attempted to represent the beauty and ugliness of humanity and faith as told through suffering at the hands of corrupt religious institutions. By imparting the failings of the church onto the sacraments they use as a source of power, I am able to deny their claim of moral authority over a people and a religion. My goal is to offer hope to victims of this institutional oppression. Having been a witness to this spiritual oppression and experiencing something so much better, there is another choice. There is hope found in a personal relationship with God, free from the demands and shortcomings of institutional religion.
For millennia, religious institutions like the Catholic Church have sought to control the narrative and experience of how and where faith is practiced. Ironically, the tenets and edicts of these religious institutions often contradict the life and teachings of Christ. Despite a history of abuse and cover-ups, people still seek guidance from these institutions, but why? This self-sustaining culture of dependency is not new; in fact, it is part of the human condition and old as time. The Catholic Church, over two millennia, has carefully orchestrated and maintained power and control over a people and a religion. My goal is to call out church leadership for not only covering up crimes of physical abuse, but also spiritual abuse, robbing followers of their faith.
To better understand this paradoxical relationship between the Catholic Church and their followers, I have employed various conditions of human suffering—COVID-19, AIDS, pneumonia, and drowning—as metaphors for the relationship between individual and institution. My goal is not to condemn the Christian faith. Rather as a witness to this abuse, I want to show those hurt and betrayed by religious leaders that there is another choice, a community of believers whose hope is not found in corrupt institutions, but a direct and deeply personal relationship with God, through Christ, as described in the New Testament teachings of the Bible. People can experience God’s unconditional love, not some version of ‘love’ forcefully presented through judgment, condemnation and oppression, which so often permeates organized religion.
By calling out church official’s subversion of the sacraments they claim as divinely bestowed, my artwork seeks to denounce these perpetrators and offer hope to their victims. In works like Altar Christus, Pneuma, and Ennomos, I explore metaphors of ritual and sacrament, as seen through disease and sickness, drawing viewers into a world that is visually inviting, intellectually challenging and deeply personal. By imparting the sins of church leadership onto these sacred rituals they claim ‘soul’ authority over, my hope is to show that faith put into these religious institutions is corrupting and self-destructive, but there is another choice...