Artist's Statement
2005
The Metamorphosis of Faith is my response to the recent reelection of George W. Bush and the rise of religious fundamentalism in our country. As I looked at the world from the perspective of a gay man, I began to question my own beliefs and the feelings I have had about my loss of faith in our country--not only in what it has stood for, but also what it is becoming. I was so heartbroken after the elections of November 4th, 2004 I began to doubt my own faith in spirit, in the goodwill of mankind, and the sense that something all-loving, kind and compassionate was watching over all of us. The seeming lack of compassion, intolerance of difference, and the judgmental “fire and brimstone” point of view from the religious right-- and their claims of moral superiority because of their Christian beliefs-- have saddened me. As I watched the suffering and division it was creating in the U.S. and the way it was played out by the media and the religious right and their culture of fear, I found it hard to understand why anyone could support it. This was not my understanding of what both Jesus and the Buddha taught; nor was it the values my parents instilled in me from both their Christian point of view and what they felt was good about this country. I began to doubt my faith in what I have believed in--a dark night of the soul, if you will.
It seems that most of the world’s current problems stem from a polarizing fundamentalist agenda--of holding to a fixed view of how we all should live with no possibility for all the different paths and ways in which one might might choose to walk in a lifetime in a supposedly free society. Its adherents are dividing us, not uniting us, and yet many people seem to support this happening. It perplexes me. These boxes are my attempt to work through this dilemma and find some way back to my faith in humankind--to find some kind of transformation from this place of hopelessness, back to a place of faith and a feeling of being in unity with all of my fellow mankind.