Everyday Saints

These saints on stones are "everyday saints".  They are symbols of the ordinary strangers that we come across that offer us a presence or wisdom we were least expecting.  Ever since I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico I have been affected by the Catholic archetype that permeates the culture. To me, there is so much beauty in the iconography.  Its simplicity and, at times, naive qualities are intriguing to me because I see a wisdom embedded in them. I tend to sense a certain repressed, yet impossible to hide, wild force of expression that seeps out of the work.  I am drawn to the mystical aspects of Christian art in general as well and its Byzantine and Islamic influences.  I am equally as inspired by German expressionism, which in my mind, somehow connects with the way I feel often when I look at Catholic art. There is this feeling that something in the work is crying out in a very subtle and mysterious way.  For me, each of these stones  holds meaning and power. They are a reminder to appreciate the often unrecognized gems that are right in front of us.

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