Abstract
These paintings are part of a series that are a pastiche of the Americas tradition of Retablos. The conventional Retablos featured narratives of Christian Gods and Saints in a miraculous realm. They were painted on inexpensive sheets of tin, which allowed for a higher rate of production and wider distribution of as a product. The small paintings were sacred objects whose uses ranged from converting indigenous people to Christianity to being treasured devotional objects for the faithful. In these small 8 inches square (20.32 x 20.32cm) paintings I have expanded the scope of the narrative to move beyond the confines of a deity/saint trope to embrace a wider cast of characters capable of speaking to the miraculous as well as the mundane. They reference ideas of creation myths, evolution, mortality, sex, birth, death, gender, fairy tales, and a variety of binary constructs, all existing in a phallic world. In this series, you can easily find a floating teddy bear as a stand-in for the Archangel Gabriel bringing the annunciation news to Mary who might be sitting next to the Frog Prince waiting to be redeemed by a princess. In fact, those two stories might share the same content about consent and surprise endings. I see these paintings as a collaboration between me and the viewer, where I provide narrative opportunities while the viewer can construct a story.
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