Tuesday, May 18, 2010

creating gods

(this post also at Feminist Mormon Housewives)

So that's me, at the back of the church, hiding out in the last pew. The atheist mommy with a sketchbook.

Lisa, Moriah and I got talking about the act of creating, of making art, and how it related to our religious beliefs. It was interesting, our different approaches. Me: I'm the naval gazer: having thought and read my way out of all belief in any literal Gods, I still find myself as an artist, obsessed with the symbols and icons and language of religion (in particular, my native religion: Mormon). God has been pivotal to my art for years: here's a piece I did a while back as I worked thought my issues/concerns/etc about approaching God.

Nowadays, I find myself obsessed with taking the stories and re-working them, twisting them, turning them, doing a bit of re-arranging (for example, I am currently hard at work re-telling the story of Eve). In my mind what I am doing is scraping away the white-washing; trying to get down to the raw, messy stuff that is at the root of all of our belief systems. My tools are pretty simple: pencil, pen, paint, a bit of ink and other odds and ends. With them I go sifting through all the shards of my broken belief.

Art is my therapy.
Art is also one of the only forms of worship that I practice at the moment. I guess you could say it is my homage to the reasons we humans make our Gods (see here and here) and also, to the way we make our monsters. (Sometimes I think those are the same thing.)


(In case you are wondering, one of the reasons I hide way at the back during church is because, quite frequently, what comes out of my pen while listening to the talks/lessons is either quite disturbing, or rather blasphemous. WARNING. Those links are disturbing and blasphemous.)

6 comments:

The Numismatist said...

Your art amazes and fascinates me. Thank you.

Jessica Steed said...

Until I read this post, I've never realized how much I think of you like Asher Lev. :)
In a very fabulous way, of course.

You are brilliant. Thanks for sharing your art and your struggle.s

Mike H. said...

G: You came up several times at the FMH snacker at Carolyn Person's place yesterday. Reese Dixon mentioned using your art for ink. Then, we mentioned the gallery you did at FHM.

galen dara said...

Mike H~ wow, wish I could have been there! (and very flattered to have been mentioned. Hehe, yep, Reese and I have gone back and forth a little bit about a tattoo design....:P)

k said...

G, this is incredible. So many good things to think about, ponder. I'm glad you sit in the back of rooms, sketching.

galen dara said...

thank you k :)