RELIGION and ART

 A totally willing, virgin fool fucked by a ghost, ain't that cool?

A tale told again and again to the savages and the wayward men

Say hallelujah, say amen

Praise the Lord......I'm born again.

   This little snippet lyric is from the old Purple Geezus song Born Again. In my view it goes directly to the heart of what religion is.... a suspension of disbelief. As a leader of a church purposefully devoid of religion, I feel it is important to try to define exactly what that means from time to time. Bear with me.

    I came to my interest in religion and art almost simultaneously as a teenager. The art was in the form of copying Christmas card scenes as pen and ink country landscapes, as well as trying to accurately represent the wildlife printed in my father's hunting magazines. I wasn't very good at it. But I was committed to the task and it was a great way to get away by myself and not be bothered by my siblings and parents. I was busy with my cue-tips and Testor's car paint in the basement while the rest of the family did their thing. A little paint high didn't hurt. I still have a few canvas boards of these early works. 

    On the religion front my cousins, siblings, extended family and I all went to Sunday School at the Presbyterian Church. As we got a little older we attended "Youth Group." These teenager get togethers were fun, run by a young minister with a wandering eye for the local housewives. The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. The minister didn't last, but he had a lasting impact on me. Christian dogma was a soft sell for the Presbyterians, but they did instill a great sense of community, albeit a bit hypocritical. Nobody's perfect. The folded CLGM programs are a direct rip off of the Montgomery Presbyterian Church program. As I matured as an artist religion once again began to creep into my oeuvre. It never left.

   I see myself as not only a participant, but a critic of religion as well as art. In my humble opinion the world has fucked up both. Recently a Frida Kahlo self-portrait sold for $34.9 million. Everybody celebrated. A woman artist finally getting her due! What crap!!!!!! I love Kahlo's work, but is this the only way to gage her greatness by a market affirmation so obscene it begs to be condemned? All belief systems and religions fall into the same ostentatious trap. From Vatican riches and that big spider in the basement to those Mormon female virgins (baptizing the dead) in bathtubs held up by giant, golden oxen,  places of worship drip with excess. Nobody seems to question it. Guru Rolls Royces are excoriated while the Pope gets a pass for all his cheesy gold and  bejeweled bling. That's fucked up.

    The CLGM has been burning dollar bills since 1986. I can count the number of art works I have sold in a forty-plus year career on one hand. Now the art world has discovered NFTs and bitcoin in order to line everybody's pockets. Even work done by artists with a social agenda is commodified (if it wants any attention) the money never finding its way to the people who really need it. The laundry keeps churning. Christian missionaries used to baptize indigenous peoples just before stepping aside and letting corporate or state actors kill them. It was seen as a positive step towards salvation, a tribute to a God who had given the earth to Western European Colonialists. Art and religion today reflect this bloody, selfish, capitalist history. Maybe I need to buy some Testors and crank out a few landscapes again. I'll be in the basement if you need me.