A Notion for Devotion:Martyred Saints - 2009
With these ten oil paintings I set out to explore my fascination with the Catholic Saints, specifically their tragic stories and violently graphic iconography. I have been drawn to this subject matter for some time and felt the need to explore and respond to it. As I researched the parables, however, the saints became less of a subject matter and more like people. They took on personalities and I enjoyed trying to get into their headspace, referring to them by name when heading to the studio: “I think I’ll go work with Agatha for a while.”
This transformation allowed me to gain a personal connection with my paintings. Although many of the stories contain self-mutilating practices that I do not condone or understand (self-flagellation, starvation, etc.), there are universal themes encapsulated in them. Ideas of devotion, mortality, persecution, despair, and solitude are issues that transcend through time. For this reason I chose to modernize aspects of the saints, to humanize them and make them more relatable to the contemporary viewer.
St. Agatha, Oil on Canvas
37.5” x 25.5”
St. Stephen, Oil on Canvas
13.5” x 37.5”
St. Catherine of Alexandria, Oil on Canvas
37.5” x 13.5”
St. Margaret of Antioch, Oil on Canvas
17.5” x 25.5”
St. Peter, Oil on Canvas
13.5” x 19.5”
St. Lucy, Oil on Canvas
25.5” x 13.5”
St. Sebastian, Oil on Canvas
13.5” x 19.5”
St. Christina of Bolsena, Oil on Canvas
9.5” x 13.5” x
St. Barbara, Oil on Canvas
25.5” x 17.5” x 1”
St. Bartholomew, Oil on Canvas
37.5” x 25.5”
