1998
Nun doll, marbles, photographs, crayon, various statues, crucifix,
scapular, root, rusted metal, matchbox, polished stone, wine
box, French chocolate box with hinged lid.
A shrine to my spiritual self naming the paradox of the outer form
of parochial school and being a dutiful Roman Catholic while at
the same time reveling in nature and the spirit I felt in the rural
area in which I grew up. I continue to find mystery and a sense
of spirituality in nature.
1998
Box with various toys, photograph, dominoes, letter and word
cubes, blocks, plexiglass cover
This shrine was my first assemblage piece, and speaks to the
survivor’s guilt as a ten-year old at being left alive after my 7-year
old brother, Michael, died. The Roman Catholic iconography was
part of my background and puts into context the confusion I was
feeling at being told that my brother was now a saint in heaven who
I could pray to, rather than the scared little boy I knew he had
been. Why did he die, and I didn’t? Was it as the priest told us and
he was so good that God wanted him with Him? If so, did that make
me a horrible sinner whom God didn’t want? Wasn’t I good enough
to be with God in heaven? I lived on, I made mistakes, I committed
sins. Girls seemed to be inherently bad in our culture, thus the
love, hate relationship not only with my brother but with myself.
This shrine was my attempt to release my feelings for my brother
and to grapple with the paradoxes in my spiritual life.
2003
Plywood, railroad spike, Mexican milagro, Boston Herald headline,
baby shoes, Christmas ornaments, plastic rosary, statue of Mary,
toys, paint.
This shrine deals with the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman
Catholic Church and the destruction of innocence and spiritual
wounding in the children it was supposed to protect.