Mary Queen of Heaven, detail

"Mary, Queen of Heaven", digital painting, 24.1M.

Mary is my muse." This is what I have been saying to myself. Kind of surprised to find myself making images of Mary. These spiritual images. Thinking about spirituality as I work making art. A lot of thinking goes on because a lot of quiet, alone, time goes into making the pictures. Now here I am with a blog, publishing to the web. Feeling vulnerable. What do I say to all these people out in web-land? The pictures are a personal exploration of spirituality.

Religious imagery is trendy in art at this time. There are many motives why people are into religious icons at this time. Irony is often implicit in recent depictions. My images are only slightly ironic.

As this series of Mary evolves, I wonder where is this going? I am so full of ambivalence and uncertainty and somewhat confused. Taking all this confusion into account I must be ker-ray-zee to be trying to communicate my stumbling thought processes to an unknown number of unknown people. But there you have it. Where ever you are, that is where you are. I am just following my muse.

Artist are mining historical religious images and stating that they attatch no spiritual connotations to the pictures. And I think, that is cool. That is a current detatched view with emotional coolness. Sophisticated. Maybe I should be like that. Cool.

But I am not like that.

Do you know that there is an area of the brain that functions as a spiritual processor. We have an anatomical, neurochemical system for spirituality. (There is also an area of the brain for profanity and dirty words.) Spirituality is physically based, similar to cursing, sexual arousal, bonding with infants. Everything that we experience has an internal physical action. Neurochemical actions are produced or repressed with every action, experience, emotion and thought.

The spiritual area of my brain is very active, Has always been an irritating itch that must be scratched. I have been through so many paradigms. Every decade seems to bring another belief system.

Japanese monk haiku, "My dreams are faded now, and I am through with dreaming. But I know the Iris will still keep its gorgeous hue."