Worship/Ritual 3 Panel Cartoon

1064 A,B,C “Worship/Ritual,” new from the studio, three individual mixed media paintings on gessoed watercolor paper. Size (each) 12 in x 15 in. Intended to be read Left to Right as cartoon panels, possibly as a triptych if you add the passage of small increments of time between the views. The ritual progresses.

About the figure(s): So interesting being a spectator to worship/ritual and accepting as normal the re-shaping of the human body with special clothing that masks the usual visual cues — robes, gilding, lace, helmets, crowns, orbs. All to make the ritual-keeper supersized, without normal features or parts.

Deconstructing (American) Christianity

1051 CleanDirtyDead 12×16 inches, oil on coated Arches paper

This triptych can be arranged in any order, or every order, and the truth of the words in sequence is still true. Try it: Dead/Clean/Dirty, Dirty/Clean/Dead, Clean/Dead/Dirty and so on. Females in Western culture transmute between these three states of being, and can even be all three at once!

You don’t have to be a church-y person to have absorbed the above as the complete and only possible states of female existence. We (my pronouns at the moment are female) don’t have to choose or even agree with this foundational and omnipresent TRUTH — if you are designated female, this is you.

Artist comment: I like the way the words “clean” and “dirty” are modestly showing themselves as there, but not in your face, while “dead” has a flashbang. Meaning? I don’t know, maybe just a direct sensory impact into the lower brain contrasted with a shy, sneaky intrusion.

Tragic and very cool at the same time.

1063 Tyranny of the Liturgical Year (12 in x 18 in), mixed media on gessoed watercolor paper.

Visual observation that the progression of seasons of worship, Advent, Lent, etc, which are ostensibly intended to focus and enhance individual and community spirituality, turn into energy sinkholes, especially for those who have to present and administer and keep “fresh” this never-ending cycle of what’s next on the calendar.

Diagnosis Dancer

Bony dancing figure with transparent skirt

1041 “Diagnosis Dancer,” mixed media on paper, 12 in x 9 in

Living with a label, a diagnosis, a condition, a disease, a designation of value and end-points to aspirations and dreams. We all do the dance.

See a closeup detail.

Living with a label, a diagnosis, a condition, a disease, a designation of value and end-points to aspirations and dreams. We all do the dance.

#1041 “Diagnosis Dancer,” mixed media on paper, 12 in x 9 in, 2020

See a closeup detail.

Lyn Southworth Images