Artist's Statement

 

Throughout my life, I have struggled to see my body positively. So, the topic of Honouring the Body has become not only a place of challenge but also a place of hopeful growth. As an artist, I often describe myself as someone who “speaks art as a language.” By exploring the practice of honouring the body through the language of art, I have been able to better understand my relationship with my body and how I can love and honour my body in the ways God intended.

​

In her book Practicing Our Faith, Dorothy Bass explores the practice of honouring the body. I was inspired by Bass when she said, “There is an intimate connection between sacredness and vulnerability…the practice of honouring the body challenges us to remember the sacredness of the body in every moment of our lives.” I began to consider how much of our lives are lived physically. I thought about how much of our emotional, psychological, or spiritual experiences are also expressed physically, and I wanted to explore that further. I wanted to consider how I use and view my body, how I experience my body and how that is enmeshed with a biblical view of how God loves and interacts with us physically. These have been created as “self-portraits” in the loosest sense of the word. Although two are facial representations of myself, the others are portraits in ways that will hopefully be recognized.