The series of work depicting stained glass panels explores objects/symbols which are ordinarily considered to be sacred or out-of-our-reach (not to be touched). By taking graphite impressions of these objects, their spiritual imagery and sacred geometry are reproduced on the disposable media of red rosin builder’s paper. Through this transformation of context, the audience is invited to interact with the symbols in ways ordinarily considered forbidden. Whereas stained glass panes are typically viewed by looking up from below (becoming inaccessible to us on the ground), by draping the long-form graphite rubbings onto the floor these stained glass panels are brought down from the walls into the realm of the viewer.
In the same way that stained glass and the associated spiritual imagery have typically been rendered out of reach in these lofty panels, so too the past seems to continually recede away from our grasp. In the leveling of the viewing field brought about by these stained glass impressions, the history associated with these spiritual images is leveled as well. By engaging with these historic Christian images at eye level, we are able to reckon with them on a level playing field.
Some pieces within this body of work also feature impressions taken of broken tile chunks salvaged from the demolition site of the late parsonage building at the United Methodist Church campus. In utilizing found objects from the demolished building, the materials and their original history are recontextualized in the new compositions, being taken beyond the demolition site dumpster in the process. This transfiguration of found, condemned materials into a new context explores the possibility that the strewn rubble of the past can be used as building blocks.