My works center around the idea of spirituality, and how it alters our lives. Spirituality and religion are something which are integral to our culture in America, but also around the world - I aimed to demonstrate this by using symbolism and themes from many different cultures, but specifically christianity and the early 20th century movement of spiritualism.

 

In all of my pieces, I toyed with the abstract, and the unknown behind most major religions. I experimented largely with halos in my first works like ‘Madonna and Cocoon’, 'The Sky', and ‘Above’, or the idea of ‘higher beings’ (both physically in my pieces, and subliminally). I was largely inspired by medieval depictions of christianity and judaism, through illuminated manuscripts and religious drawings. I was fascinated with the usage of halos in both pieces to illustrate ‘holiness’ or ‘godliness’. I found that halos created focal points within my pieces, allowing me to show ascension. I tried to juxtapose the god-like relationships my viewers would take away from the usage of the halo with traditionally radical things, separate from mainstream monotheistic religions. I played with images of American counterculture - things like dyed hair, comic or tattoo style line work, and bright or pastel colors. All things which created focal points and layers to my work physically, but also displayed the way that religion and spirituality are incredibly unique to each person’s experience.

 

When I researched my first piece, ‘The Story of Passover’ I was struck by a story which I, growing up as a young Jewish woman, had memorized every year during the Jewish holiday of Passover - that of the four sons. In this story, we learn of four sons - the wise son, the evil/rebellious son, the simple son, and the son who does not know what to ask. I read an analysis of this story that argued this story was an example of the relationship the best scholars will experience with religion - we begin as the son who does not know to ask, so caught up in following that we do not understand the conscious choice of being religious. We progress to the simple son, finally rebelling in the ‘evil’ son, as we ask questions for the first time, and finish as the wise son - we have rejected our former thoughts, and emerged fully realized in our religion. This story, I feel, is integral to my work - my pieces change to demonstrate the evolution of one's relationship with religion.

 

‘The Story of Passover’ begins with thick line work, demonstrating a heaviness of religion taught but not understood, a story repeated over and over again with no understanding of its words. We view the ‘evil’ son in the rebellion present in ‘Above’, as consciousness begins to creep in, line work trading out for comic-inspired style choices, watercolor meshing the fuzzy between known and unknown.  This is hammered home through the multi-media, intentionally disgruntled nature of 'The Sky'. In ‘Madonna and Cocoon’ we view a full rejection of previous pieces - the colors are strong, bold, and angry - warmth of the halo and the fuschia background contrast strongly against the bright green hair of my Madonna, her cocoon symbolizing the last of her innocence swaddled by her rebellion. ‘Madonna and Cocoon’ represents this rejection of previous knowledge - the ‘evil’ son’s wicked nature taking over, questioning all which previously was known.

Finally, the wise son is revealed as ideas of religion and spirituality take hold once again, yet different. In my triptych, ‘No. 1’, ‘No. 2’, and ‘No. 3’, we see the transformation of desire and knowledge. Significantly more abstract than my previous pieces, this demonstrates the chaos and awe of taking one's own beliefs into themselves. Furthermore, these 3 pieces show massive change on behalf of the ‘wise’ son - they begin with stronger lines and contrasts, black outlines of faces which weave in and out of mismatching colors in front of a fuzzy acrylic background. They demonstrate a return to the previously known, deeply colored by past experiences this time. By ‘No. 2’, the colors begin to meld together more as they transform into a more cohesive color scheme, contrasted by the background as they meld into a single thought. In the final piece, ‘No. 3’, the journey ends as the literal eye depicted is fully open - like the wise son.