"Eve" (Working title of Senior Thesis) (2022-present)
Through found photographs, archived images from my own past and present, as well as digital drawings, collage, and mixed media elements layered together, the idea of naïveté and innocence as a child in religion, as well as the struggle of understanding what it is to be a woman in religion, is discussed. Due to the conversation around femininity within religion that is being had, this collection is titled “Eve,” a reference to “the mother of all the living,” as stated in the Bible. The religious elements depicted in these pieces, such as the use of bible verses, religious objects, halos, first communion dresses, and gold leaf nod to classic symbols and ideas within the Catholic religion. Including these elements is my way of discussing my personal experience growing up within the Catholic religion and how it is generally patriarchal. And even though Mary, the mother of Jesus, is very venerated in Catholicism, the focus is commonly on how pure she is, the fact that she is a virgin, and that her role is a mother. As young children, and even into adulthood, we are taught that those are all things that we should look up to and strive to become. Not to say that any of that is bad or negative by any means, but just that those ideas can in a sense become limiting to women, especially in the modern day. So, this theme of femininity within religion is discussed here in this collection.
"Senior Thesis, Ongoing (Untitled)" (2022)
Through photography mined from my own past and present, with digital drawings and other mediums layered on top, the ideas of naïveté and innocence as a child in religion, as well as the struggle of understanding what it is to be a woman in religion, is discussed. All of this from the perspective of looking back on these specific moments as a young adult. The drawings, different forms of collage, and Bible verses nod to classic symbols and ideas within the Catholic religion. Halos, stars, holy water, doves, the hands of God, and the light of the Holy Spirit, are taken from, and inspired by, the paintings of the Italian Renaissance that showcase the Catholic religion at the forefront. Because I am drawing these symbols myself and adding other elements of mixed media to these images in the present day, on top of these old images from the past, this conversation of how the mark of my own hands plays a role in how I remember a specific moment. My memory of something can distort my understanding and the reality of it as time passes. To the point that I may not even recognize the person in the image, because if it wasn't for the photograph, I wouldn't remember, and that memory would not exist. Because of this, I think I could begin to add more images from my family archive into this collection, not just the ones based in religion, because that thought of memory can be applied to many moments throughout one's life.
