Sanctification & Oh God, Hear the Words of My Mouth.

2026
Watercolor and gouache

This diptych, Sanctification and Oh God, Hear the Words of My Mouth, marks a closing gesture within my body of work grappling with religion, memory, and inherited belief. Created through a process of return and revision, these self-portraits evolved into ritualistic, repetitive, and devotional acts. Borrowing from the visual language of liturgy, they hold reverence and resistance in equal measure.

In Sanctification, my body becomes both altar and site of transformation. Fire burns within my chest, an arrow pierces my throat, and a coal is pressed to my lips, referencing biblical imagery of purification and calling. Here, that symbolism is reimagined as self-authorship. I am made holy by choice through pain, devotion, and the act of becoming.

In Oh God, Hear the Words of My Mouth, prayer shifts into something more complex. Snakes emerge as symbols of divinity and the divine feminine, representing power that exists both within and beyond the self. The title, drawn from Mormon temple ritual, is used as an act of reclamation. Language once used to instruct how prayer is to be done has been recontextualized as an assertion of personal authority and spiritual autonomy.

Together, these works function as bookends, closing a chapter of religious inquiry shaped by my upbringing, my body, and my role within systems of belief. They approach sanctification not as something granted, but as something forged through tension, questioning, and survival, making space for a spirituality that is self-defined.