Em Goheen / MFA Illustration Practice ‘21
The Garden
2020
Ink and digital
As I grow older, faith and tradition become less rigid and more organic. Less as a system of rules and concrete stories and more up to interpretation depending on the experiences of the individual.
In an exploration of that rigidity of church architecture intersected with the natural organic forms of nature and the body, I sought to combine the ordered structure of the architecture of holy grounds, with the emphasis and celebration of life and the natural world of the pagan traditions Christianity has its roots in. Here I hope that an acknowledgment of the two could possibly open up the world to a greater appreciation of the senses and an acceptance of those who refuse to deny themselves their pleasures. Religion is such a physical experience, from the colors, lights, sounds, and smells, why should we not celebrate those same experiences outside of it? The natural world is a sacred space, just as sacred as the buildings we construct on top of it.