Type of Submission
Podium Presentation
Keywords
artist, Christian, transcendentals, beliefs, experiences, identity, truth, suffering, artwork
Proposal
My artistic work is preoccupied with identity, relationships, love, and suffering, which I explore through a variety of media, including painting, ceramics, and sculpture. Humans are constrained to bodies, to physical experiences of touch, smell, taste, and sight, and yet we are obsessed with cerebral matters. Much of my work touches upon universal human experience, mainly, the transcendentals—the innate longing for truth, beauty, and goodness—alongside the inevitability of suffering.
My paintings explore the human condition, informed by the teachings of Christian scripture. Stylistically, I paint representationally and abstractly, utilizing depictions of the human form and non-objective brushstrokes, often using circles to mark unity and completeness. Sculptural work is formed by personal stories and relationships, allowing love and compassion to be worn and felt. Repetition and pattern are common themes in my practice, revealing my tendency towards mechanical discipline. My mind endlessly tangles and untangles its beliefs, and through material, I search for the spaces in and between what Ecclesiastes names “eternity in the hearts of men” and the words of Genesis “from dust we came and to dust we will return.”
As an artist I long to help cultivate a taste for beauty in the Christian, and to create work that is intriguing to those not in the faith. In this presentation I will share images of my work and the intentions behind each piece, as well as my philosophy of art-making as a Christian artist.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Publication Date
2024
Giving Physicality to Faith
My artistic work is preoccupied with identity, relationships, love, and suffering, which I explore through a variety of media, including painting, ceramics, and sculpture. Humans are constrained to bodies, to physical experiences of touch, smell, taste, and sight, and yet we are obsessed with cerebral matters. Much of my work touches upon universal human experience, mainly, the transcendentals—the innate longing for truth, beauty, and goodness—alongside the inevitability of suffering.
My paintings explore the human condition, informed by the teachings of Christian scripture. Stylistically, I paint representationally and abstractly, utilizing depictions of the human form and non-objective brushstrokes, often using circles to mark unity and completeness. Sculptural work is formed by personal stories and relationships, allowing love and compassion to be worn and felt. Repetition and pattern are common themes in my practice, revealing my tendency towards mechanical discipline. My mind endlessly tangles and untangles its beliefs, and through material, I search for the spaces in and between what Ecclesiastes names “eternity in the hearts of men” and the words of Genesis “from dust we came and to dust we will return.”
As an artist I long to help cultivate a taste for beauty in the Christian, and to create work that is intriguing to those not in the faith. In this presentation I will share images of my work and the intentions behind each piece, as well as my philosophy of art-making as a Christian artist.
