Margaret Rose Vendryes

Matrimony (The Seven Sacraments According to Our Father) (2015)
oil paint, tacks, lint, fishhooks, brass rings, photographs, sand, shells, egg, fabric, seed pearls, crystals, paper assembled in a wood box
13.5 x 14.5 x 3.5 in.

I was raised in the urban Roman Catholic Church and although I no longer participate in organized religion, The Church of my youth lives on within me.  It was a nurturing place where my faith made me feel safe and loved.  As an educated adult, the role organized religion plays in the lives of those dedicated to The Church became false and intolerable.    I am a survivor of incest.  My boxes contain the truth of how inequitable the strict rules of The Church are for women and children, especially girls.  Confirmation, Matrimony, and Last Rites are three completed boxes of an on-going series The Seven Sacraments According to Our Father that I have worked and re-worked for over 15 years.  The other four boxes remain in-progress. By constructing these “scenarios” in a contained space that can be shut and stored away, I have released my silenced truth about a childhood lost to the sickness of a pedophile I was told to trust and obey.”

© Margaret Rose Vendryes