Sui San Mui

Mary - Trinity I    Pastel on paper  24" x 74"H  5/23/16

As a Protestant, Mary was invisible to me.  I began this work while I was going through RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) in the spring of 2016.  I wanted Mary to be real to me. The work began with the blue of Mary's cloak and the pink of Mary's love. It evolved to include a sun-type image, thus intimating the presence God of the Father, and two balls of light.  Dante's vision of the Trinity as 3 circles of light suggested itself to me.  Dante also writes of a river of light, which becomes upon his inner awakening the courts of heaven.  Between the rays of the sun-like orb is that river of light. The path to Katsura Villa leads the viewer to the right to another part of this world.  But the principal actor in this work is the drop of Christ's blood.  The cross lies further in the distance.

Trinity II   Pastel on paper  18" x 24"H  3/14/17

You can see from my earlier pieces that I am drawn to introduce the orthogonal grid, the presence of man, into most if not all of my work.  But here, the window mullions have become all of space and time - they are the cross.  The upper left corner is a quotation from the preceding work.  The white bird is obviously the Holy Spirit looking down at the birth of Jesus.  The pink wave is Mary, with the sword piercing her heart, and the right is the marriage at Cana.  

Between Two Trees  Pastel on paper  18" x 24"H  7/22/17

I had a dream of a Santa Fe style church sandwiched between two trees, but the space needed to be opened up.  I go to St. Francis of Assisi here in New York often for Mass. This monastery needed people dedicated to Christ: the  monk appeared. As did the wolf, a modern Gubbio.  In this world one drop of Christ's blood is about to change everything.

Jailbreak - Resurrection in the Tomb   Pastel on paper  24" x 52"H  5/16/18

This is a cut through the cave where Jesus was buried.  The white light from above, God the Father,  cleaves the tomb to free the Son, the blue heart beat.  The Holy Spirit is the red, the connection between the two.  The rest is commentary.  I made this piece while I was taking the 19th Annotation of St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises.   I think you can see the effect of the Exercises on this work.

Anima Christi  Pastel on grey paper  20" x 52"  7/28/18

After drawing the resurrection of Christ, I wanted to somehow depict the death of Christ.  At first I could only imagine sheets of rain falling over and over with great intensity, all the world crying in grief.

The first lines of Anima Christi (a prayer dear to St. Ignatius) inspired me:

Soul of Christ, sanctify me. 

Body of Christ, save me.

Blood of Christ, inebriate me.

Water from the side of Christ, wash me. 

Bouquet of Flowers by Odilon Redon inspired me to use the gray ground and introduce the sombre brownish earth tone.

At the Foot of the Cross Pastel on paper  20" x 52"  12/12/18 

I have always run away from pain.  I found the concept of pain not being real in Christian Science liberating and I experienced relief.  But to appreciate His sacrifice requires our being with Him to the end, and so this work took me about 5 months to make, stroke by stroke, thought by thought, erasure by erasure. The Passionists originally were to contemplate being at the foot of the cross 6 months and serve in their apostolate 6 months.  I love this concept.  Because the space of transformation is here - at the foot of the cross.

Leap of Faith  Pastel on paper 20" x 52" 4/19/19

I began with wanting to depict the life of Christ, to balance the other works - the Resurrection, the Death, and the Passion of Christ.  I chose a greenish background because I thought - yes - Life is green!  You can see the oil of anointing coming down from the sky.  And then, I could not go on.  I thought - I do not know what the life of Christ is.  How can I depict something I do not know?  Why can I not take a leap of faith?  So this became a depiction of a place from which to leap.  The silhouette in the background suggests New York (a desire to get incrementally concrete).  When I cried out, to myself, "I am not worthy" I answered to myself "No one is, that's why we need a savior."  But then I also heard "come."  The sheep is walking on water to the boat where Jesus is.  The black is the rock, shown in section, from which we jump.  The answer to "I am not worthy" became "I will"  "catch you."  The speech bubbles have shapes - the slice coming down from the sky is a quotation from "Resurrection" and represents God the Father.  And the bird, clearly, is the Holy Spirit.  The Trinity is present in the work.

What happens in our leap? What do we need for our journey into the unknown?  As we fall we gather gifts or helpful tools.  At first I saw toys, a mirror, a music box.  These transmogrified into the theological virtues - faith, hope, charity.  If the green represents hope and the orange faith, the begging bowl, a direct take from the cover of Live Like Francis, suggests that to have charity we must have humility, and to have humility we must embrace poverty, our dependence on God. From the bird emanates a kind of net to catch us.  We land someplace in the Southwest, a natural kind of church.  The two specks are two companions, two followers of Christ.  Jesus sent his disciples out in twos and for Francis, his companions were the sweetness of life itself. 

Pope Francis calls me into the Church  Pastel on paper 20" x 52"   03/15/2020

I had wanted this image to be about the life of Christ in his Church, but the the initial impulse came from the Scripture verse, "Deep calls unto deep" Ps 42:7.  The three rays coming from above are a continuation of At the Foot of the Cross.  They represent both the Trinity and the theological virtues - faith, hope, and charity.  A transcription of an actual dialogue between the priest who brought me into the Church and myself is in the speech bubbles, and the "galactic mirror" is actually St. Peter's Plaza rendered in colors that dematerialize Bernini's colonnade into droplets of renewal and hope upon which we walk and through which we pass.  Pope Francis is seen in plan at his window, speaking his message of mercy and  truth, which radiates to a mass rock in Ireland surrounded by trees.  Mass rocks are part of the history of the persecution of the Church;  the words written in the turquoise river of light express my sense of connection to history since being confirmed in the Catholic church.  The river of light (Dante) needed to be suggested in the uppermost realm.  One friend has seen them as tears.  I am/We are the sheep being called into the Church.  and yes, that is a drop of Christ's blood between the rock and the plaza. The red crack in the plaza are the sins of the church.  Sin is within and without the Church - it brings us into the Church as a road does and the blood of Christ which redeems flows from the Church and into the Church.