the Modern Saints

Awhile ago, I had the idea of modernizing Christian saints. Because ancient icons of saints portray everyone as old, white, expressionless, and hard to tell apart, I believe these pieces of Church imagery can turn modern-thinking people away from the influences of the saints, and even the Church itself. My goal was to re-imagine these extraordinary people as modern, everyday humans... because that is exactly what they were, and they remind us of ourselves. They show us that we can be as amazing as them. In these paintings, I have corrected ethnicities to show the Church’s more widespread, though hidden, diversity, I have given each a character or personality and a real human expression, and I have given each a style and a modern twist. To further this notion of extraordinary coming from ordinary, I have painted each on a discarded or thrifted piece of wood. Much like the saints, each plaque once forgotten was transformed and is now revered.