Arts Thread

The Making of God is a reflective piece that explores my internal struggles with God and Christianity. Studying the early Renaissance paintings and the great painters of colour, M. Rothko and J. M. W. Turner, and the poet, artist and theologist William Blake. I delve into how colour and texture can be used to emote certain feelings and create a religious experience for the audience, the art of telling a story with no words. Exploring techniques such as dyeing, shibori and polychromatic printing to create emotive colour and manipulating them with wax and digital print transfer to imitate the old cracked religious paintings, Bishops clothing and bio-materials to create my own crucifix. Through this project I also learn how to meditate through my practice, allowing myself to make mistakes, not overthinking or perfecting but reflecting through each moment and trusting the process. Allowing myself to feel, almost creating a religious ritual in my work. In this process I begin to wonder if this work is a conversation with the Lord himself. You’ll see imagery of harsh dark colours, fading light, the crumbling of the crucifix, and myself trying so desperately hard to hold onto whatever faith I have left at my own pain and expense. Because the painful realisation I’m coming to terms with through this project is that though I may no longer be of faith, I still carry Him with me. The Lord is forever bound and woven within me. It is the question of how do you believe in a god that you deeply despise? How do you find peace in that?