Artist Statement - Martyred Saints, Freaks, and Victims series

I was working on a series of martyred saints when we moved to a changing neighborhood of flop houses and boarded up properties owned by the city. Our neighbors were described politely as “social marginals.” They were freaks and victims. The line between them and my saints began to blur.

In the news: a young woman found in a woods, raped and set afire. Another was found wandering from a woods, raped and with her arms cut off.

I went to an art theater which advertised a film by Cocteau, but instead they showed Todd Browning's 1932 film Freaks. When I stopped to browse in a bookstore, the first book facing me was a book on circus freaks.

We wandered through Spain. In the streets, legless and mis-shapen people on low wheeled skids propelled themselves with padded hands. In Valladolid, the carved polychrome martyred saints dripped painted blood from gaping wounds. In Cordoba, the wineskins were shaped like human torsos, swollen and bloated with air.

We glance surreptitiously, and stare if we can, without being caught. We feel a thrill of revulsion and curiosity and cannot avert our eyes. We maintain a barrier between ourselves and them because we fear life out of control, things going crazy - not the way they are supposed to be. We fear it will happen to us.

The dividing line is very fragile.

“To be an artist means never to avert one's eyes.”
- Quote by Akira Kurosawa