Daniel_Donato_About Me_2020_100″x70″_Reductive Woodblock Installation

I am interested in the reductive printmaking process that symbolizes reducing my presence from the Catholic Church.

This block was carved in four different states and printed in layers (from light grey to black) to create the final image. My in-process journey symbolizes my recent detachment from the Catholic church and struggling with my new identity within Catholicism. I started with a light grey silhouette, which represents myself with the church but with no identity. And the following states were carved away and layered. These states represented me as me moving closer to understanding myself and connecting more with spirituality because it is about me communicating to God and not the Church’s rules. All 25 prints are curated in a grid installation to visualize the repetitious imagery to convey my stance that I am willing to take the risk of damning my soul into hell by refusing to practice public church traditions. Also, not all 25 prints are the same, some are noisier, whereas traces of ink appeared in areas that should not hold ink, and some registrations are layered offset. I did not strategically offset or create the noise during my printing process; however, these spontaneous accidents alters my original idea’s personality. And this echoed my current anxious mindset.

This series of work and my decision to detach myself from the Church is based on current events of destruction to church statues in conjunction with American civil war statues that have been removed this past year. In June of 2020, a mixed congregation of activists toppled over the Statue of Saint Junipero Sera. Following this, several events with less of an agenda relating to decolonizing American statues are considered sacrilege and vandalistic by burning churches and statues, beheading statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, pouring red paint over Christian statues. These events have left me in a state of bewilderment. I spent countless days contemplating why are not the Bishops, Archbishops, and Cardinals of America not speaking up about protecting Christian churches? What is my role as a church-going Catholic? What does God want? And what kind of Catholic do I want to be? These are the questions that had driven me to do work without my typical Catholic Iconography.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, I have been in my isolated safe place at home surrounded by Catholic podcasts and Catholic news, so it all made sense for me to take sides with Catholic laypeople preaching and agreeing with the calls for Catholics to stand guard at our local community churches and defend community Christian statues as we see fit. At the time, it seemed righteous and a noble gesture to demonstrate my dedication to the church and God. However, returning to Stony Brook University and being back in a diverse atmosphere, I stopped defending the physical church and statues. I abandon the church until further notice. And because of this revelation, I thought a lot about other issues I have been trying to wrap my head around before COVID-19, such as homosexuality recognition and female leadership under traditional Latin teaching. And understanding my risks by not complying with the traditional way would mean that my soul would be tormented in hell for all eternity. This thought had always created great anxiety within me.

My mental health and spiritual faith are coincidentally more stable and healthier, in a way, I never felt freer from my obsession with Catholic iconographies and rituals. Moving forward, I am concerned about helping Catholic survivors from sex abuse crimes and other faith-related crises.