SANCTUARY:noun
plural
sanctuaries.
  1. a sacred or holy place.
    Synonyms: adytum, sanctum, shrine, altar, temple, church
  2. Judaism.
    1. the Biblical tabernacle or the Temple in Jerusalem.
    2. the holy of holies of these places of worship.
  3. an especially holy place in a temple or church.
  4. the part of a church around the altar; the chancel.
  5. a church or other sacred place where fugitives were formerly entitled to immunity from arrest.
  6. immunity afforded by refuge in such a place.
  7. any place of refuge; asylum.
  8. a tract of land where birds and wildlife, especially those hunted for sport, can breed and take refuge in safety from hunters.


SANCTUARY

is born of a personal, lifelong, and evolving relationship to religion and the questions begged by its existence, history, and reported decline within U.S. culture

SANCTUARY

is rooted in my own experiences raised by Evangelical missionaries in Latin America

SANCTUARY

is the exploration of sacred spaces and rituals as containers for refuge and community
SANCTUARY
is a constellation of ongoing visual studies of religious sites and communities* around Seattle, Washington, USA.  These images reflect my own positionality: caught somewhere between participant and observer as I work to understand my relationship to the divine (in all of its manifestations across time & space) and an involuntary emotional/psychological response to being in the presence of spiritual spaces and iconography.  As observers, we approach the practical and social roles of religious institutions and traditions.   In participation, we are linking ourselves to communities and actions derived from apparently inherent principles and a collective unconscious;  fundamental aspects of the human condition we seem to be leaving behind in an increasingly digitized, analytic, and individualistic world.

2024-ongoing

*Co Lam Pagoda,
Watt Dhammacakkaram,
Immaculate Conception Church,
Blessed Sacrament Church,  
& St. James Cathedral


4/20
documentation of EASTER MASS @
the mother church of the archdiocese of seattle 
& the oldest standing catholic church of seattle


04/20/2025

4/20/2025 8:00am @ St. James Cathedral:

4/20/2025 11:00am @ Immaculate Conception:

SANCTUARY, 2024: