Padre Pio - Charcoal on paper - 64x94 cm

Padre Pio is about deciphering the image or identity of the subjects and placing them within a context which is ambiguous . The engrossed size draws on papallels of religious representation of saints and holy people often created on a vast scale. Padre Pio parhaps a reminder of someone from the Islamic faith, flying wholeheartedly in the face of his true identity as a catholic religious saint

Muhammad is based on the dichotomy of the image as accessible and forbidden.
The duality in the work is completely tied in with the title of the work.
It has been purported that in certain sectors of the Islamic world that to create or portray the image of Muhammad is an insult. The second meaning of the work is the actual person it is a portrayal of; that of Muhammad Atta one of the 9/11 hijackers as a younger man. I am fascinated that to draw a portrait of such a man would seem to some almost a heinous act. So it does tie in with the first meaning of the work that to insult someone.
Another work - ‘John Wayne’ uses the built in filter of graphical interpretation. This poster art interpretation allows me to draw down the supposed hierarchy of religious type and ground it in a medium that is more associated with advertising or the commonplace.

The 'Actor’ portraits were created to question validity of values in religions and their representatives and a comment on the reality of belief systems today. Specific examples of this are Portraits of actors Bela Lugosi playing Christ, and Marcello Mastroianni as a priest in the film Massacre in Rome, Robert Mitchum as the Preacher from The Night of the Hunter, and Bing Crosby from The Bell’s of St. Mary’s.

the crusader #1 ink on paper

Other work will include a double spread comic book strip called The Crusader #1 - Bad Communion. This is a tongue in cheek approach to a fictional story of the murder of the congregation thru the giving out of poisoned communion bread by the priest, a metaphorical tale on the conceit of religion and a tale in our times on dying in the name of religion.