While I was attending Art school, I began exploring Tarot cards. The idea of a set of images, each with a selection of meanings being randomly chosen to put together a concept was fascinating to me. I reflected on how Poems were constructed and what Mark Twain had said about cauliflower and cabbages. At the time I was going through some of the angst that visits young adults and randomly selected the hanging man. Considering his place as a “martyr” of sorts. His being tortured and yet keeping an almost emotionless attitude about it gave me much to ponder.
I had been making paper for about a year. I found that using the paper of works that just didn’t make the cut to be both economic and somewhat “religious”; I suppose that requires an explanation. I decided that the sheets I produced were like reliquaries of the broken and damned, important at the time but to be used as the basis for something else. I chose the biggest and produced an image of a man twisted completely out of shape, but seemingly calm about it. I’ve gotten a great deal of commentary about this piece. It has had a few owners who then asked if I could take it back, as they had gotten what they needed from it, but knew it might help someone else more.