IKON

As a child I was always fascinated by Catholic icons portraying saints. They were always vertical, had the main figure dead center, standing with their entire body visible, and wearing the garments, symbols, and colors that represented their entire story visually.I could stare at an icon for a long time, trying to figure out what the meaning of it all was. Not knowing the scripture was even better for me back then, because that meant that I could let my imagination go wild, and associate meaning in places where perhaps it wasn’t appropriate.

This love of the personal projection of imagination and interpretation on a visually loud, and yet textually silent image is something I’ve always had a passion for. It’s no surprise then than as an artist I assigned special importance to replicating this experience for the viewer of my work; to some degree at least. I had single, individual figures represent emotions by mixing Catholicism and mythologies from ancient religions together in the series To The Beat Of A Distant Drum; but after it was finished I remained with a desire to continue making stand alone figures that would be the physical representation of a concept, and that would also break away from the costumed dancer imagery I conceived with TBDD. That is the moment this other series was born.

Each piece here represents a concept. Each figure has a story that you’re not aware of, and they are wearing the symbols of their assigned concept. Your only clue is the title and the visual cues. In interacting with them, my hope is that you can have a conversation with yourself, guided by your biased reactions.