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Documentation of religious
shrines has influenced the artist's work in digital media for the
past three years. Her most recent digital collages are inspired
by devotional sites in Holy Land (Waterbury, Connecticut USA) and
Ave Maria Grotto (Cullman, Alabama USA) as well as the more temporary
altars created in celebration of St. Joseph's feast day in New Orleans.
Other conceptual influences derive from Celtic illuminated manuscripts
and African-Atlantic altars. The transformative powers of these
devotional works are echoed in the personal stories told by those
who create them.
The artist's digital
collages combine idiosyncratic fragments of personal narratives
with universal archetypes. By manipulating scale, contrast, and
relative visibility of detail, she maintains a tension between accessibility
and obscurity. Although the symmetries suggest order and control,
the actual process of making the patterns is more like automatic
writing or glossolalia.
Fava Milagro and Mary's
Helpers are part of a body of work created for a traveling exhibition,
Saints Among Us, funded in part by the J.W. Criss Fund and Mississippi
State University. Participating artists were Anna Chupa, Anne Hanger,
and Kristen Woodward.
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