GOD
361 salt packets, found paper, staples, acrylic, ink, carbon
18 × 24 inches
Multifaceted commentary on our culture's rapid approach towards Sodom-esque consequences.
Genesis 19:1-29, carbon paper, silver leaf, acrylic on paper
9 × 12 inches each
Continuation on the theme of societal destruction and the concept of curiosity-birthed consequence. We introduce Lot's nameless wife, who turned to see her home destroyed, and though slated otherwise as saveable, was turned into a pillar of salt. Or here, a McCormick adjustable sea salt grinder.
Mixed media and conversation hearts on board
40 × 50 inches
Each heart is one word of the verse, as follows:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13 is very important to me. God's love and the ability to love others in His image are our greatest gifts.
Acrylic, carbon, graphite on paper
18 × 24 inches each
Wisdom is defined by the Septuagint as the perfection of knowledge being a gift from God, and being the breadth of God's substance as the one omniscient and almighty deity. Full knowledge of God's capabilities is almost entirely impossible, with a whisper of an exception belonging to Lot's wife- who turned, and bore witness to the power of God personified in Sodom's destruction. She, the only host of the consequence of true wrath, was silenced, and left behind by her kin. One must imagine her to still be sentient, only changed- in this, she is marked designated survivor to experience Sodom's destruction. While Lot and his kin escaped mentally and physically intact, she theoretically endured the firestorm. Yet salt is not a flammable substance, so again, in theory, she endured. In a way, Lot's wife could be said to be a victor in some way, being the host of this unparalleled knowledge; arguably Wisdom personified in its nuance. Yet still, left behind with nothing. The consequence of knowledge, of consumption, of insatiability. Then only intellectually, but today so much more.
37 protein bar wrappers, hot glue, cardstock. Wall installation at The Parlour Gallery
If anyone’s curious, the best protein bars are Legendary Foods’ protein pop tarts and Prime Bites brownies in the birthday cake flavor specifically.
Assemblage on panel
9 x 12
Women have always been called to venerate their own femininity. The 30,000 year old Venus of Willendorf gave ideological birth to our modern methods of doing so, whether that be calling upon the collective Mother within the Virgin Mary, or covering everything with pink sparkles as a recollection of girlhood.
Oil on canvas
20 × 24 inches
Graphite and colored pencil on paper
9 × 12 inches
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple. - Jenny Joseph
