Show One | 03.27.2026
Van Sawyer
PAINTING & DRAWING
I am burdened by the tension pulled tightly between the profane and the sacred. With many, holiness is often assigned without consent. Our culture defines cleanliness as a virtue while ignoring virtuous qualities in the struggling and overlooked. When we reduce those to their sins, we allow their hardships to become who they are. Parts of a person do not make a whole. The product is never sanctified. We condemn the search for relief when it is through socially stigmatized means, and we celebrate transcendence through devotion. Religion and drugs run parallel to one another, offering higher purposes. Yet we are persuaded to believe only one of their existences is devastating. The truest form of grace we can offer to others is shifting the concentration from what they could be to what they are already.
The work belongs in the aftermath. The candles are blown out, and ashes are left behind. My altar remembers the presence of someone, yet does not share who. It exists within Eden before exile. Already built, but already abandoned.
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