God & Country

God & Country- Altered commemorative plates, 72” diameter

God & Country, like my other plate-based works, creates an alternate life for mementos that reside within the home. I see removing the churches from these vintage fundraising plates as an additive gesture. It instigates a dialogue that broadens our trained relationship with these objects. Without the central architectural structure on the plate, the object is seen anew—God becomes visible in the depictions of cumulus clouds, as does the hand of man in depicting idealized nature. The empty silhouettes are reminiscent of the open lots in rural America today where a majority of churches have simply disappeared.