Friday, April 12 through Wednesday, April 24

Opening Reception: 6-9 p.m. Friday, April 12

Artist Statement
This body of work was formed as a reflection on my transforming spiritual practice and its place within my role as an artist. I was raised as a semi-devout bible-belt Christian. I found personal refuge throughout a (middle-hard) tumultuous childhood developing a relationship with God. As I aged, more of my emotional safety was found in my faith. My teenage and early adult years were spent in a Third Wave Pentecostal (Neo-Charismatic) church, which emphasized the power of the holy spirit, accompanied by acts of faith and worship. The core of my early adult emotional development took place in and around the church. Services included expressions of praise and prayer through glossolalia (talking in tongues), prophesy, and faith healing. This introduction to mysticism had a heavy influence on every aspect of my life and left a gaping hole when I had an eventual loss of faith.

When God died in my heart, I struggled to fill the void left where I once believed magic lived. My body grieved the absence of the metaphysical and my rejected the idea that I had lost a part of my self. The roots of art and creative practice were instilled in me almost as early as religious I found that the meditative, transcendent, flow states that art making facilitates worked as a stand-in for the dormant parts of myself that housed the holy spirit in my former faith. The act of speaking in tongues, which once served as a hypnotic, intuitive prayer language, was rebirthed in me when I painted. The lost sense of reverence that accompanied words of prophesy in my church life came to life when I attributed self-spun grandiosity to my craft. I hoped to examine the intersection of sincerity and cynicism by poking the bruise of religious trauma. These works represent contemplations on my spiritual identity as well as a mourning of once deeply held beliefs. My goal in any creative act is to manifest what is inside of me as a tangible work. Layered in the creation of these pieces are lingering feelings of loss, fear, acceptance, and change.