Exhibition Statement
The
difference between a living and a dead person is a growing body. It is
the gift we are given as we enter the gates of this world and
relinquish as we leave.
But within the mainstream of
Christianity-—indeed every major faith—lies a fundamental mistrust of
the body. Although we the faithful believe we are created by a loving
God, religious tradition seems unable to reconcile our "very good"
creation with the reality of a joyfully juicy embodiment on earth.
Associating nudity with sexuality and sexuality with sin, we seem to
think that the thicker and more shapeless the clothes we don, (quite
conveniently for us northerners!) the greater our piety.
Repressing
any psychic power, Carl Jung says, only makes it monstrous. Faiths that
try to subsume the powers of Eros through intellectual discipline find
that sooner or later Eros emerges dark and dangerous. But are the pious
truly called to numb themselves to the body? If spirituality and
sensuality are really opposed, then did God give us bodies just to
watch us squirm?
This series from which this work
derives explores the vein of erotic mysticism from poets across history
in every major faith who tell of their devotion through their
spirit-charged bodies. I have borrowed from poets like Rumi, the13th
century Sufi, Mirabai, the16th century Hindu, several medieval
Christian women, and even a mystical poet from our own century: my
sister Krys Holmes. These works are both paeans to this beauty and a
sort of self portrait of my soul—a beautiful, tormented bride—in
fervent, dramatic, sometimes overtly sexual longing for God.
Beauty
is the smell of God in the world; find something of beauty and you
sense God's handiwork. And there is nothing more beautiful in all of
creation than the exquisite human form. Through the study of mystic
poets, I have come to believe that we are intentionally created by God
in stunning packages so that the Sacred can be celebrated in everything
we do. Even if the Eros of life is not where your reverence lies, I
invite you to enter into the spirit of these works and to feel how the
Divine is seducing us all the time.
(Many of these works were created with monotypes made by Lonnie Hanzon.)
Read the news article
Read the reporter's thoughts on the Nude
See more works
Freedom of Religion, crayon, 68 x 36 in.
