Spiritual 2002-

I was not born into a religious family. When I was a child my maternal grandmother would take me to the church of my choice around Christmas. I invariably chose a Catholic church for the wonderful display of candles and the rituals performed there.

My spiritual curiosity began in the 1960s when I was a tertiary student studying in San Francisco. I was there during the height of the Vietnam War and I experienced a strong connection with the protests against the war, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, 'Flower Power', the Haight-Ashbury, Alan Watts, experimentation with drugs, and a spiritual yearning that contrasted with the death and suffering of the war, racism in the US, and hatred in all forms.

From that time my spiritual life has been a gathering of knowledge and the establishment of personal beliefs from a number of religions and philosophies including First Nation cultures. There is much to be considered and learned from (so called) pagan beliefs. I do respect and identify with the thought that 'the earth is our Mother who feeds and nourishes us'. With this identification I have a profound concern with the catastrophic damage we homo sapiens are inflicting on our planet.

I have concentrated on Buddha figures and Mary figures in this series for the simple reason that I feel they have something to say about being spiritual and being human.

The Buddha was a wise man and a teacher, not a God. He lived an exemplary life with a compassionate concern for humanity. His teachings were recorded during his lifetime and he had a long life during which he conveyed his wisdom.

Mary is harder to know; there is very little written about her. She is seen as something like a conduit between God and His Son's earthly birth. The major religions seem to dismiss the fact that half of humanity, and a very high portion of the animal kingdom, is female. This is something that Carl Jung was quite concerned with at the end of his life. He was thrilled that the Catholic Church recognised Mary and seemed to promote a quaternity that includes the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost and Mary. For Jung a quaternity psychologically represents wholeness.

The bare-footed Mary figure, that I feel particularly drawn to, shows her literally and symbolically in contact with the earth. She is holding Jesus and a lamb and this, in my view, affirms her connection with both her spiritual and her earthly nature. The symbolism suggests the creative and connecting power of the feminine. In my view, this particular figure, presents Mary as 'Mother Nature' incarnate.