This final day of the art challenge from @orourke_art is the completion of a circle starting with the Covid Martyr image. Saint Sebastian is a really important archetype for me, despite the fact that I am Buddhist, not a Christian. His statue is on my Buddhist shrine. The catholic saint, much loved for his courage and horribly killed for his identity as a Christian makes a challenging image for those of us oppressed for any other party of our identity. LGBT people rejected, humiliated, brutalised and condemned by the Church have often found parallel in him as a metaphors for our suffering. Artists have homo-eroticised this suffering saint for centuries (and I love the power of reclaiming an image). I follow that lineage. Here first, is my ceramic image of him, Patton Saint of protection from disease. He was often depicted as young, long haired and slim to feminise Him as visual code by gay artists. Historically He would have been a strong, middle aged, crop-haired soldier, probably thickset and masculine by modern constructs- if I am to homoeroticise the image those would be my choices. I made the image because the more LGBT identified with Him, the less statues of him were readily available (as though our association with him was an embarrassment to the Church), so I thought,”Fuck you, I’ll make my own”. One almost never finds him represented in church shops now. The second is digital collage of Him with another gender defiant Saint Joan of Arc. Next another digital drawing, then a finished piece for #arrowsofdesireexhibition last year. Next a wood cut reliquary, an intaglio reliquary of binding rope and arrowhead, after that three textured intaglio close ups and some of the postcards for the show. #saintsebastian #saint #martyr #lgbtq🌈 #queerartist #queerart #reclaimed #sculpture #printmaking #intaglioprint #digitalcollage #arrows #faithoverfear #courage #patronsaint (at The Horse Hospital) https://www.instagram.com/p/CANiqrngw5g/?igshid=gpavis1yurro
