Visual Analogues
Christianity and the arts have had a tenuous history. At times within church history and around certain denominational corners the arts have been embraced. At others, the arts have been avoided and denounced. And yet, for many reasons over the last 40 years, the arts have re-entered into critical dialogue with Gospel, the church, its mission and liturgy. As a result, the arts are enjoying a sort of renaissance across much of the Protestant landscape. Still there is widespread discussion about how the church should engage the arts, and more broadly culture itself.
Trained in both theology and visual art, I am deeply invested in this dialogue from both positions. I am interested in what theology has to say to the arts, but also what the arts have to say to theology. This body of work emerges from this latter position. It is art about theology. It is art as theology.
Utilizing a variety of appropriated textual fragments and imagery, the work embodies a set of observations and critiques from within and outside of the traditional church. The prints engage a variety of doctrines including inspiration and revelation, as well as issues regarding colonialism and the conflation of Christianity with American politics. The still growing suite of lithographs are printed in silver ink upon black paper intending to invert the typical black text upon white paper of traditional theological works.
Theologically, the work follows the Reformation’s spirit and trajectory of ecclesia semper reformanda est (the church is always re-forming). My intent is to encourage the church, as a collective institution, toward thoughtful self-reflection in the light of its witness and the charges of its critics. This visual theology is not done in a polemical spirit but in an irenic one that seeks the unity and reform of the church albeit with irony and humor.
Trained in both theology and visual art, I am deeply invested in this dialogue from both positions. I am interested in what theology has to say to the arts, but also what the arts have to say to theology. This body of work emerges from this latter position. It is art about theology. It is art as theology.
Utilizing a variety of appropriated textual fragments and imagery, the work embodies a set of observations and critiques from within and outside of the traditional church. The prints engage a variety of doctrines including inspiration and revelation, as well as issues regarding colonialism and the conflation of Christianity with American politics. The still growing suite of lithographs are printed in silver ink upon black paper intending to invert the typical black text upon white paper of traditional theological works.
Theologically, the work follows the Reformation’s spirit and trajectory of ecclesia semper reformanda est (the church is always re-forming). My intent is to encourage the church, as a collective institution, toward thoughtful self-reflection in the light of its witness and the charges of its critics. This visual theology is not done in a polemical spirit but in an irenic one that seeks the unity and reform of the church albeit with irony and humor.
American Ideals
This series takes an often humorous look at how American ideologies become imprinted upon the landscape. Two subsets of the series (Foreign Policy and Domestic Policy) are a collection of minimalist maps printed in a graphite color over a white on white texting abbreviation that alludes to some aspect of American policy-making.
Contested Spaces
This series takes my interest in place, space, and the landscape and explores how our politics, religion, and other cultural beliefs shape how we understand and interact with the landscape.
The Substance of Things Seen
The title for this series emerges from Robin Jensen's text by the same name. They are visual mediations or touchstones of my wrestling with complex theological ideas. The work does not seek to illustrate the theological concept as much as provide a personal analog to it.
Anonymous Witness
Anonymous Witness is an ongoing series that emerged as an offshoot from my MFA final project The Archival Turn. The work uses lithographically reproduced vintage photographs that are often accompanied by cartographic elements in translucent layers to suggest the the loss of historical context and narrative once associated with the object.
Books
My initial ventures into book arts were motivated by the MFA exhibition and the desire to create a participational object. Each of the books attempt to image a variety of presuppositions in the interpretation of objects. Some image random cultural imagery lodged in collective memory, others symbolically image cultural biases, while others use layers of translucent photographs as symbol for memory and experience.
