Discarded Religion (Found)
(2000 - present)
This series is
an ongoing project, which began in 2000, with "Misplaced" (see below)
being the first. To date, there are seven unique pieces in this series.
Using a number of found religious items discarded by their original owners
- including a Zen scroll, statues, and Bibles, - which I have come across
throughout my life.
Rather than letting them being thrown out, and adding to the world's landfills,
I decided to turn them into works.
Growing up Catholic, I understand the Church's ecumenism, and hold nothing
against any religion, but view them all as simply metaphoric mythology.
With playfulness of heart, and no malice of forethought, just as others have
perviously done with the works of religions worldwide,
I worked the items into the cartoonish end results they became. The target
of this work was not to be offensive, though the end results are often cutely
so.
click on image of Misplaced (above), or Frienemies (below), for larger view
Both pieces above
were exhibited in Philadelphia, Sept 2013, for the group art show All Along
the Watchtower,
at Pterodactyl
Gallery, curated by Jon F. Allen and David E. Williams.
click on image for larger view
The work above,
St. Nowhere aka A Saintly Mess, is the newest piece in the series.
It is a completely repainted, 22" (56cm) tall, ceramic statue
of Francis of Assisi, found headless, and thrown out by a voodoo temple in
Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, 2016.