The Creation. The Statue. The Wanderer.
The Creation of Dreams
This piece is inspired by Michelangelo's “Creation of Adam” and a poem by William Butler Yeats titled “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.” I wanted to create an image of evangelical obscurity, in which there is a sort of divine figure but where the figure is still unknown to the viewer. The subject's lean conveys a sort of distant, lonely longing, with this almost-holy subject reaching out toward the darker areas of the frame for something that the viewer cannot see. This expresses a sense of need for something to believe in, a sort of desperation for some beacon of faith or of hope. The divine subject within the image is cloaked, bearing no title or definition, just as the concept of religion is in itself obscured and abstract. This correlates with my own personal beliefs, as I feel a distance between myself and organized, heavily structured religion that I have been exposed to in my life. This piece visualizes a longing for something concrete that can provide faith and trust in some sort of divinity or higher power that is not quiet in reach or even in view.
The Weeping Statue
This piece focuses on the desperation that can be found within religion. The concept of the "weeping statue" has prevailed for centuries, with people having claimed to see religious statues shed tears. These claims have almost always been proven false, with scientific or scandalous explanations. However, despite the clearly fictional basis of the claims, there are always some believers. When viewing religion, some people tend to rely solely on their beliefs to explain misfortunes, disasters, and tragedies. When something goes awry, it is often viewed as a deity's fault or a deity's "blessing in disguise." The figure in this piece, appearing both as draped in fabric and as brass, is looking up toward the sky, as if pleading with some sort of heavenly higher power. With an expression of hopelessness, the figure convey's despair. While religion is meant to be pure, it is often the source of desperation and of the feeling of being powerless, under the mercy, rule, and will of something or someone else, yet people still cling to it and look up to their perceived creator.
The Wanderer
This piece focuses on the obscurity surrounding religious beliefs. Religion is broad, with many people who claim to share beliefs holding different values and holding different opinions on teachings within their respective religion. There is no exact or direct path regarding religion, as there is no exact structure or definition of it. While people may have structured, unwavering beliefs, the religion itself is up for interpretation. In this image, a cloaked, unnamed figure is wandering, blinded from anything distinct and almost searching for some sort of direction and solidarity. This is meant to convey the idea that people tend to search for some sort of "faith" in order to find their own stability and their own understanding of the world. This search can sometimes be a journey, led purely by instinct, morality, and environment.
