ABOUT SPIRITUAL TOOLS

Spiritual Tools is a series of prints based on my interest in the age old split between science and faith, or matter and spirit. In the sixth century BC science and religion were not separated and the sages of the Milesian school in Ionia were interested in the essential nature of things which they called 'physis.' The term 'physics' is derived from 'physis' and meant the attempt to see the essential nature of all things. Before the fourth century BC the Greeks had come to separate spirit and matter and this dualism became an essential element of Western thought which was clearly delineated by the Cartesian split of the 17th century.

These images, while playing with the idea of a 'dead' mechanistic world in conflict with spirit or soul, also touch on a more personal representation of the nature of spiritual development, its apparent difficulty and the necessity for serious tools. The prints speak most eloquently at the full Iris size, 47.75 x 35 inches, and give me the opportunity to revel in the metallic details of the tools as well as the richness of the backgrounds.