The 7 deadly sins are fascinating. They are not actually sins but characteristics that can lead to sins. They were originally meant for monks and eventually were expanded to the general populace. They are many faceted which makes them open to many interpretations. That makes them ideal for artistic portraits. I decided I wanted to draw portraits of the sins and began to ponder what they should look like. What mediums should I use and how large should they be. The prints were for an upcoming one man show at Pacific Lutheran University. I thought there are only 7 how hard can that be. They turned out to be very difficult and very meaningful.
7 Deadly Sins
Greed
My thought process… What does Greed look like as a portrait? Is Greed in facial expressions? How do you convey Greed as an image? I struggled with these questions for a long time. I asked my friends for advice and got nothing usable. Then I remembered the phrase describing a task that is really easy. “taking candy from a baby.” I thought about what that would look like and began to draw. It had to have a child in tears in distress. And the person taking the candy had to be much older than the child .He would know better known that it was horribly immoral. I drew the man turning away with a lollipop and just for good measure I gave him three hands. I was surprised at how many comments I received. “Did you know he has three hands?” I always answered, “I know the man has three hands.” Why do you think he has three hands? Most people didn’t know. I always replied “Because two were not enough.”
7 Deadly Sins
Gluttony
As I was thinking of how to draw gluttony, It dawned on me that in our society, gluttony is not about overeating. But it is about consumption. Everything is disposable now. Let’s say that you buy a brand new television set and you enjoy it more than a year then stops working. Do you take it in to get it repaired? No, it is not cost effective. The repair would be more than buying a new one. So the broken one goes to the landfill. I don’t have a solution for this scenario but the majority of us are guilty of the sin. The portrait is of a large person in the form of a pig. His jacket is plaid but the design is made up of phrases that illustrate a form of consumerism. Things like “Buy one – get one free” and other phrases to influence you to buy more even if you don’t need it. It is the idea that more is more and a must have. The danger of this kind of philosophy is that it reduces the value of things, making them commonplace and of little value.
7 Deadly Sins
Lust
Lust was a particularly challenging sin. Most things I came up with were too racy for the feeling that I wanted. I felt like the image of lust should represent the pain and unfairness that occurs when lust goes unbridled. Particularly with regards to children. Lust most often happens in the dark. Light is abhorred by lust. It prefers the darkness. I drew some creep eyes then cut a hole in the paper for eyes and mounted them on the reverse. It gives the impression he is watching from a hiding place. What he is looking at is represented by a little girl’s doll. His identity is obscured. The space is dark and threatening. It is a hard portrait to look at but one that makes you very aware of the danger and the sin and the victim. Lust is ugly scary and always a deadly sin.
7 Deadly Sins
Pride / Arrogance
Pride separates you from the world. You have few friends if any and you are generally avoided by people because you offend them. You have an over inflated opinion of yourself and make it a point to let the world know. It is easy to have misinformation because you are unwilling to have an open mind or to be able to consider others opinions if they are different from yours. The portrait is straightforward. There is a dark picture of a man that looks closed minded and below the statement in red crayon which reads “I’m right and you’re wrong and there is nothing you can do about it”.
7 Deadly Sins
Anger
Anger is an emotion that can lie dormant for a long time and then explode into violent and destructive behavior. People with anger issues often claim that is not their fault. That they can’t control it. It is what it is. Anger is often described using temperature. A heated discussion. I was so mad I could feel my temperature rising. I felt that given that heat was so common when describing anger the portrait should be drawn with fire. I bought a pencil like propane torch and proceeded to draw on paper. I was surprised that I had a fair amount of control with the torch. Suddenly the paper burst into flames. How fitting I thought it’s just like anger. You think you have your feelings under control and a moment later you are on fire and no longer thinking rationally.
7 Deadly Sins
Envy
Envy is a sin that may look minor but when envy takes hold it creates a green eyed monster. It is a desire for something you want so badly but you can not have and can become “Well if I can’t have it I will make sure no one can. We are often selective in what we envy. We don’t envy the whole but parts. I wish I had her nose or that mouth and we spend countless hours obsessing about it. This was the approach I took to describe the sin of envy. I took different parts of faces, noses mouth, eyes and the like and combined them into one face. I then took a coarse thread and sewed the different face parts crudely together. I wanted to make reference to cosmetic surgery as well as Frankenstein’s monster.
7 Deadly Sins
Sloth
But I only see 6 sins one is missing. But which one? I see Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Pride, Anger, and Envy. But which one is absent? It is the sin of Sloth. He didn’t bother to show up for his portrait.