Based on the biblical story of creation and art historical interpretations of the theme, this work addresses the sexual conditioning and stereotyping inherent in patriarchy. The work is comprised of panels in the form of an abstracted cross, which contain birth and death notices, along with textual material provided by the two models depicted. In a highly textured lower panel, repetitive gouges and markings make reference to the biblical origins of a sinful and punishable sexuality. Visually organized around the shape of a tree, the work alludes to the tree of knowledge, and Adam and Eve's fall from grace.

My practice engages the complexities of personal and cultural history, organized religion, gender, sexuality and the nature of memory.  The relationship between the female body and Catholicism’s obsession with sin/guilt forms a major theme in my work and raises questions about the essential nature of female identity.

The piece, while commenting on an evolving contemporary culture, is based on the biblical story of creation and alludes to art historical interpretations of this theme.  Its theatrical structure creates an aesthetic distance and unintentionally replicates the pattern of an abstracted cross.  The motifs of tree, roots, cross, snakes and leaves are ongoing in my oeuvre.  Printed notices on the main panels and quotations on the side panels are linked through hand written sentence fragments.  The text came from the models themselves and has been slightly altered, then looped, making it flow in a stream of consciousness fashion.  The two sentence fragments, one from each side, in English and in French, are enlarged and repeated several times on the main panels, over numerous photocopied birth and death notices also repeated like the historical process. Visually and thematically interrelated, the panels are interdependent on one another.

In this work, I am addressing the sexual conditioning and stereotyping of the patriarchal, hierarchical, competitive market culture, within the context of Christianity’s ideologies of heaven/hell, inclusion/exclusion and reward/punishment.  The evil nature of sex is depicted in the highly textured lower panel whose surface is defined by repetitive markings and gouges as well as the word “fucking”, a reference to the biblical origins of a sinful and punishable sexuality. The markings and gouges may be read on one level as the mortification of the flesh and in their resemblance to prehistoric cave art, allude to both carnality vs. spirituality, paganism vs. deism, and sacred and profane ritualistic practices.

Challenging stereotypes and misconceptions, my work is an inquiry into the formation of identity, integrating an allegorical language with roots in an earlier, oral culture and religious metaphor. The result is the multiplicity of meaning inherent in art as self-examination.