Painting as Liturgy

Abstract

There are a number of ways to find meaning, value, and purpose and I consider myself equally fortunate and cursed to have found painting as a means of seeing the world. Painting is as mysterious as it is blatant, healing as it is destructive, truthful as it is deceitful, and communal as it is individualized. These juxtaposing ideas offer me an unmatchable degree of curiosity that keeps the engine of my soul fueled. Through this body of work, I am navigating a new identity of fatherhood and am documenting themes and/or symbols of domesticity as they correspond to this identity. The work posits an emphasis on time (the rate at which it passes by and is employed as a limitation), place (the specificity of home and notions of home), and light (a recurring protagonist in the work). As the paintings are a personal account of my current phase of life, they are an outlet for contemplating my role as a father.Painting is a deconstructive response to my rigid evangelical upbringing; a way for me to process the persuasions and often, toxic theology of the Church. Though my paintings do not deliberately address religious subject matter, it is important to note that the ‘why’ behind my visual lexicon is informed by an adolescence riddled with religious trauma. Consequently, the wiring of my brain finds inherent value in religious practices, but I’ve traded my inherited faith for a faith that proposes artmaking as a valid form of liturgy.