Religious Vending Machine

I recently did a piece that I was at first afraid to put up for the public to see. I didn't want to alienate or offend people that I care about. But after having a chat with Amy today it was decided to post a blog about my thoughts on this piece. Most of the pieces I have done so far have been very fun to do and maybe very fun to look at. But there is a lot on my mind that I have carried with me for a long time and I've decided to start channeling these thoughts creatively. Over the past couple weeks I've dedicated myself towards dwelling on what art is really all about: communication. Communication goes both ways. What this piece means to me is personal and may be different than how you, the viewer, interpret it. My goal with this piece was not to give you a one-sided biased opinion of my own. If anything, this piece could be a mirror to some people.

Pictured below is what I consider the second installment of this piece. Religion is a very big world wide thing and a very personal thing at the same time. Your thoughts and opinions on this piece are your own, not mine, and they were wide and varied, so I would consider this painting a success in meeting it's objective. I know that some people didn't like it or didn't get it, and that's ok. This was not a poster telling you what I think you should think.

My inspiration for this painting came from someone making a comment that reminded me of one of my favorite sayings which goes "If you think religion (or life or faith) is a vending machine in which you insert virtue and receive happiness, you're going to be very disappointed." So that's really where it all starts. This painting represents, to me, the way I think many people think religion works. I think that many people have a leftover conditioning from childhood where they expect that they are going to get what they want, and fail to understand situations where they don't. (Not that I'm saying you should be happy when things don't go your way, but it might explain why we are such a law-suit happy nation.) So I tried to paint all the things I thought represented happiness, success and status coming out the vending machine. I also liked the idea of it being treasure, like a pirate's loot. And that's really what it's all about to me. The rest of this is just little thoughts I had about the individual details, but not the meaning of the painting, which is open to interpretation.

It's also my opinion that religion, like everything else, has become very commercialized. That is why there is a copy of Twilight in the chalice, and also the "Everyday Low Price" Wal-Mart smiley face resting in the gold. Because Wal-Mart is a corporation that claims to be a "family business servicing families." Which is why some Wal-Marts in different regions of the country have (for example) entire DVD sections that carry nothing but religious movies, depending on what region you are in. The corporation upholds the image that "good god-fearing families raising children will shop here and they will get the best deals (because we import from China and don't pay those same family raising people squat.)"

I painted the pill bottles because it always tends to bother me when people don't give credit to medical science and instead credit a health recovery to religion. Playing devil's advocate, wouldn't you also want to thank God that you live in a country where healthcare is available, that you went to a clean hospital with specially trained doctors who are gifted with brilliance in surgery and were able to attend medical school for over 12 years? There is countless people who are very smart and very educated who developed your medications in labs, performed your surgery, changed your bandages, drew your blood, and the list goes on. This doesn't cut God out of the equation, but it's just something that bugs me.

Maybe because of the picture size, it's hard for people to see that the vending machine says "Insert virtue" but I think that kind of ties the whole meaning of the painting together. Again, it comes down to people trying to get what they want, and when they are denied, the confusion comes from rationalizing that they did the "right thing" so they "deserve it" or they should have it, the idea of "But I am a good person, so this is not fair." This isn't exclusive to religion, the same thing occurs in customer service "I'm paying good money, so give me what I want." Which is another reason why I painted gold and money and made the virtue the currency of the vending machine. Also, there is a puppy.

I think the wedding cake threw people off, and most of you probably thought I was making a statement about marriage, or my marriage. If I was going to paint an image displaying my thoughts about marriage, specifically my marriage, it would not look like so much of a fantasy or look so pretty. I'm not saying it would necessarily be ugly, I guess it would be a lot more "real" is what I'm saying. The wedding cake is simply another way for me to represent how I think religious "moral values" have become commercialized through the bridal industry. First note that the wedding cake is obviously for a heterosexual couple. Second, the table and the gifts. It's not necessarily saying that marriage will come from the vending machine, but a heterosexual "perfect wedding" might. If it represents marriage at all, it is simply saying that heterosexual marriage seems to be a status of virtue and success in our culture.

The yacht, or "saleboat" represents two things. On the one hand, it represents wealth and status. Having a boat is a status symbol in our culture. On the other hand, it represents Christ. The life preserver is often used as a metaphor for God or Christ, the anchor on it represents being secure. Christ was often traveling on boats with his buddies in the bible as the apostles were fishermen.

So those are my own thoughts that I was having as I did this painting, but it's really open to interpretation. In some ways it looks like a sarcastic dig at religion, but on the other hand, the painting is very colorful and cheerful and almost looks like an endorsement.

Anyway, I thank you for all your comments and support and I hope to do more paintings like this in the future.

Thanks for reading,

Holly