Painting

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https://hdl.handle.net/10217/180171

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Open Access
Hannah Quinn: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Quinn, Hannah, artist
The artist's statement: I create paintings of what in the world I find beautiful, and my work, the process and final product, functions as a cathartic release of emotions, good or bad. My art pays homage to the natural world and the celestial bodies beyond. The stars, the sun, and the moon, as well as natural elements of the Earth like mountains, deserts, trees, plants, and bones are often incorporated into my work, most commonly adorning or complimenting a portrait or a depiction of the human figure. I also take inspiration from mythology and folklore, and enjoy incorporating a sense of spirituality and mystique into my work. Ideas for a piece come to me at random through music, movies, other people’s art, nature, and everyday life. Or ideas slowly build as time passes until they are conceptual enough to be translated into art. Recently, my work has been mainly inspired by personal experiences, and this inspiration leads me into creating large, surreal, and elaborate pieces, where every image and detail are intentional. After trying many techniques of painting and learning through trial and error, I have found my preferred process, which is building my paintings in layers. I begin with a canvas toned by a transparent wash of raw umber or red ochre. This creates the foundation of my underpaintings which helps me establish the placement of highlights and shadows. From there I begin adding colors, and by working carefully and patiently with the paint, layer after layer, my vision slowly becomes a reality. For me, the creative process is very meditative and personal.
Open Access
Kaylee Congdon: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Congdon, Kaylee, artist
The artist's statement: My artistic journey is a personal exploration of girlhood and sibling dynamics. Drawing from my memories and emotions my work captures the genuine connection that shapes one's identity during the formative years. My work is inspired by images from my childhood where my sisters and I were in the midst of shared experiences evoking a sense of nostalgia and capturing the stillness in the moment. Utilizing oil on canvas and a palette of bright and playful colors I bring these memories to life. I enhance the nostalgia of the images by making bold gestural brushstrokes. The subject matter within my paintings carries layers of meaning that prompt viewers to reflect on their own experiences of growing up, fostering connection within my work. My art shows the transformative power of shared experiences, and sisterhood, while also portraying my personal memories. Through my work, I invite viewers to address the complexities of nostalgia and memory offering a glimpse into the joys, and cherished memories that shape us into who we are.
Open Access
Lucy Benton: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Benton, Lucy, artist
The artist's statement: My practice reflects ideas connected to memory, growth, and ecology, focused on the exploration of the interconnectedness between myself, others, and the natural world. I use my artwork to create a deeper understanding of the intricate world around me, as well as the relationships that shaped my identity. Growing up, I spent countless hours exploring the woods on my grandmother's property in Wisconsin, which led to a keen appreciation of nature. Drawing inspiration from my childhood, my practice is deeply rooted in the organic design of the natural world and how that links with my memories and my perception of self. My work often features the human figure, particularly the female form, serving as a reflection of my own involvement with and connection to the natural world surrounding me. Additionally, imagery depicting the human form serves as a connection to the nurturing energy of influential figures in my life—specifically my mother, aunt, and grandmother. These women have played roles in shaping my perspective and creativity. Using oil paint as my main medium, I incorporate vibrant colors and dynamic textures to evoke the living energy within the world around me. Through these paintings, I explore a combination of both abstract and representational imagery to reflect and explore my place within the world. Heavily inspired by artists like Lois Dodd, Ellen Seibers, Cecily Brown, and Mark Bradford, my artistic style involves a wide variety of mark-making, creating movement and energy within my brushwork. Compositionally, I approach my paintings as an exploration of space, color, and texture as I build my paintings up through many layers. My canvases are often evolving as I add and subtract through imagery and paint.
Open Access
Claire Paquette: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Paquette, Claire, artist
The artist's statement: My work revolves around the concept of the stranger. The stranger is someone who is unknown to us and thus can be alluring and apprehensive. I paint these people as a way to crystalize a fleeting moment and to immortalize them forever in paint. Studying my reference photos is not only an act of striving for visual accuracy but also a way to study the essence of the individual. This parasocial relationship allows me to observe people more freely without the requirement of social engagement. I am just as much of a stranger to these people as they are to me. Yet, by isolating these specific moments I aim to contradict the nature of time and memory. By fully rendering the people within my paintings I deem them to be the focal point while leaving the background to be less important and thus more loosely painted. This contrast further emphasizes my relationship to the subject and the closeness I strive to have with them. Artists that have served as particularly potent references are Edward Hopper and Mamma Andersson. Both of these artists toy with their compositions in a similar manner, exploring the dynamic between what to fully render and what is pure color. Their influence guides my own exploration within the confines of paint as a medium. My paintings aim to confront the viewer and force them to contemplate their own relationships with people they encounter everyday. It is a common belief that people are these enigmatic, complex beings that we will never fully understand. However, when studied further there are fundamental bonds that unite us all. We are all linked by shared experiences and a common humanity that is able to transcend our differences. This connection serves as a way to cultivate empathy and through the act of nurturing these relationships comes the ability to enrich our lives in profound ways.
Open Access
John DiPietro: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) DiPietro, John, artist
The artist's statement: Ive noticed inconsistency with what many artists say they are doing and what they actually do. I try not to define what I do so that it won't change what I am doing. Ive done a lot of things I hate and I've always come back to art. I had an opportunity to go to school after leaving the military and now Im writing this statement. I think life is really novelty and complex. I think about the end every day. The world around me is growing more absurd by the minute. Questions like why are we here and why is it the way it is are always on my mind. I often feel like I am fighting a war in my head. What am I doing? Killing time? Spending money and acquiring material things? Being bad? Being good? All I have is right now, I know that at least, So I try to make art and I hope that someone can relate to it.
Open Access
Molly Haynes: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Haynes, Molly, artist
The artist's statement: "Her Spirit…Reflections" explores the feelings of grief and loss from a hopeful and nostalgic perspective. Through multiple mediums, I explore what it means it to find peace and joy through the creative process. Clay and paint are materials that hold memory; memory of its shape, the artists' mark, the collective moment in time, of where it has been, how it has traveled and its purpose. They hold the memories of ancestral stories, how people have thrived or survived. In its fired state, clay holds the memory of the practice and the process. It tells so many different stories, nourishing the body, representing the body, containing the body. Similarly, the process of painting are many moments and marks, frozen in time. I use a traditional style of painting to create a feeling of dream-like nostalgia using symbols close to my heart, in relation to my late mother, who passed from early on-set Alzheimer's in 2006. I explore the beauty in missing someone so profoundly and the memories I carry. Rather than dwelling in how the pain makes me feel, I aim to share the joy from having felt that love. The poet, Ross Gay reminisces on the sensation of seeing birds flying in the airport as something he must share with others by saying, "I wonder if this impulse to share, the urge to elbow your neighbor until the bird flew between you up into the pipes and rafters you did not notice until you followed the bird there, is also among the qualities of delight? And further, I wonder if this impulse suggests- and this is just a hypothesis, though I suspect there is enough evidence to make it a theorem- that our delight grows as we share it." This is the sentiment I aim to bring into everything I create, whatever medium that may be. Each clay feather is a representation of motherly spirit, essence and the memory of her. The shadows that the feathers make are not unlike a memory; intangible and existing only because the form exists somewhere in time. They are a reminder of loss and grief but also grace and beauty. Attached to the physical body of the vessel, the feathers become weighted and grounded. They become personal, bodily, and intimate. The forms represent an opposition between spirit and physical. The spirit of the feather, a collection of her memories, lives simultaneously in the ether and the body, where one is formless and the other is bound by change. The paintings of the owls represent a deep connection to spirit, a reminder that they are close and always watching. Not only are they close through our memories, but maybe also through something much harder to comprehend. Clay and painting have given me the space to reflect on emotions and experiences that I have a hard time putting into words. Multi-media artist, Rose B. Simpson, reminds us that we are all guests on our earth, in our bodies and in this space. With that knowledge, I am honored to have been a guest in my mother's home, and now a guest in the memory of her. This is a reminder to hold space for gratitude as I am given the opportunity to honor her through my personal expression. This space is a meant to be a place of reflection for myself and anyone else. We aren't alone in our losses and grief; these emotions are communal. Remember that the greatest grief comes from what has given you the greatest joy.
Open Access
Samantha Homan: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Homan, Samantha, artist
The artist's statement: Throughout my time working on this series, my paintings progressed into a collective study of liminal spaces. Although this was not the original intention of the body of work, I am attributing this common theme to my subconscious feelings associated with transitioning from student to artist during my final semester at Colorado State University. My final semester has been full of nostalgia for moments that have not yet passed; this feeling is strange and nearly indescribable. This series is a peek into my attempt to capture the present and revel in the spaces in between. Titled Light in Liminal Spaces, these works are a balance between my guiding interest in the technicality of light and my innermost feelings and worries. It is my hope that these pieces evoke similar emotions from within the viewer and serve as a reminder to appreciate the luminous moments in between destinations.
Open Access
Gabrielle Haberman: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Haberman, Gabrielle, artist
The artist's statement: Painting with an idealized viewer in mind has always captivated this idea for me of creating an experience for the audience. With my paintings I want viewers to be able to approach what they're seeing from the perspective of an observer. This perspective allows for having a looking in the mirror type of experience as if the viewer were observing one their own reflections or portraits while experiencing something outside of ourselves. I have noticed, especially with paintings depicting mundane expressions and relatable context, that viewers relate and will actually have similar experiences and can recognize it in the paintings. Whether someone who never remembers what they look like but thinks it's interesting or someone who relates more to body image as expression, the goal of the viewer is to create an artist or art-interested community that occurs when viewers start to question their own face/portrait/reflection and want to get curious about it. I want the paintings to bring together a community where it is safe and understanding to do so. As an artist this is important to me because having a sense of a community has helped me in many ways in personal life and with understanding deeper parts of myself and my place in the world. The paintings reflect that by portraying my experiences and using color to illuminate a sense of light and bioluminescence to make it more vivid, which portrays how I visualize the references in my mind. I take inspiration directly from my dream journal and then sketch the visualizations from certain dreams or my personal photo references. Then usually I paint on a larger scale because it is more comfortable for me and gives me the space to capture everything I want in a painting. After building the canvas size I collect different references to help me paint different scenes from my dreams or photo references and then slowly build up layers of color that show through each layer, eventually, building up the whole painting together and then adding last marks to help the viewer's eyes gaze around the canvas evenly.
Open Access
Rachel Garrison: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Garrison, Rachel, artist
The artist's statement: My works are focused on my internal dialogue that is brought to fruition through my imaginative processes. Before starting each piece, I choose a specific concept or experience that I want to explore emotionally. While working with my canvas, I allow my imagination to wander, creating characters and narratives throughout. Being in complete control of this process has been reminiscent of the times when I would play with dolls as a child. My canvas serves as a safe space to engage in the playful and straightforward child-like thought process while coming to terms with complex emotions. Creating in such a way has blessed me with the ability to create hand in hand with my inner child and present self. It has given me the fulfillment of exploring emotions, controlling the narrative, and providing fulfillment for myself. My paintings have become a messy reflection of my entire being and the complexity of life and self. It has given me a window to see myself and how I operate. Artmaking has become an interaction with my adult self, my inner child, and my canvas, all tangled into one conversation.
Open Access
Amanda Rooms: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Rooms, Amanda, artist
The artist's statement: As a multimedia artist whose primary focus is sculpture and installation art, my goal is to let the materials guide my process in creating interactive artworks. My current body of work combines sculpting and painting, centered around my generation’s experience with unsolicited videos found through social media. These videos, which have content viewers don't consent to consuming, contribute to a lost sense of innocence. Unsolicited content is burned into the consumer's memory. There is no agency in viewing this unregulated media. The work I create focuses on conceptualizing how these videos affect us. The forms in this body of work aim to capture desensitization, curiosity, and discomfort these videos come with.
Open Access
Noemi Gonzalez: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Gonzalez, Noemi, artist
The artist's statement: Working primarily with found objects and collage elements, my oil paintings deal with social issues pertaining to race, class, and immigration. I work with an array of found material that is relevant to these issues such as wood or drywall retrieved from construction sites, found imagery from magazine interviews, and personal abandoned family photographs. I see these themes working in conjunction with the process of collaging, sanding away, painting over, concealing, or revealing. Informed and often inspired by personal experiences, my paintings shed light on the complex immigrant experience through the everyday life moments while also surfacing hardships pertaining to race and class. Thus, the work grapples with reconstructing narratives, materials and their context, the found and lost, the past and the present.
Open Access
Dominic Nagle: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Nagle, Dominic, artist
The artist's statement: My art is the result of my perceptions, filtered through my intuition and created using mixed media. My intention is to create art that provokes visual sensations in the viewer. Whatever the viewer takes from my work is none of my business. My pieces in this space reflect abstract and instinctive urban art with a concentration on graffiti and street experiences. Much of my art throughout has a masculine, and even working class focus, yet it is often balanced with feminine language and pastel colors. Much gratitude for taking the time to view my work.
Open Access
Annika Lahr: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Lahr, Annika, artist
The artist's statement: My series of oil paintings explores the relationship between gender roles and societal expectations from a feminist viewpoint. I explore concepts of femininity and masculinity within western hegemonic ideals and interoperate ideas of the gaze through my work. I am interested in the preconceived perceptions of gender that influence ways of seeing. I aim to present these issues within my paintings by combining realism and abstraction, two art styles that I reference particularly in their abilities to have conflicting interactions and multidimensional elements. Organic versus the structural and rigid implications of form I feel reflect a level of feminine and masculine stereotypes. In relation, Cubism and Surrealism especially influence my practice because they question our means to understand life outside of our reality. Color interactions, form, and movement are all technical elements in the production of my work. Experimenting with these elements allow me to question how images can be distorted and altered to have multiple meanings. My process involves compiling recognizable imagery, specifically of the human body, natural environments, and symbols which are then layered and merge together as one image. My interest in the human form comes from the idea of self-awareness of our own bodily autonomy and how this serves as a form of reflected gender identity. My reference images later develop into the physical painting which then offers a certain level of intimacy with the viewer. Viewer interaction is particularly important to me as the distortion within the paintings can vary from short to wide distances. Spatial awareness can offer a chance for the viewer to recognize patterns of seeing. On a broader scale, I am motivated to understand audience perception of my work and I question the ways they interoperate the narratives hidden within each piece. Through my studies of feminist viewpoints, I have gained a deep sense of personal understanding of my own gender identity and my creativity allows me to explore these feelings through an introspective process. While I aim to express my own experiences, my work is not meant to express a single narrative. Ambiguity is a constant motivational concept in my series, and I hope to inspire others to search for their own level of introspectiveness. I am interested in developing this series further to create a communal discussion around gender issues and pushing the limitations of traditional painting with new non-conventional ideas.
Open Access
Alisondra Stephenson: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Stephenson, Alisondra, artist
The artist's statement: My work is primarily about the residue of human touch that builds up in ourselves and in the objects and spaces around us. I create airy, low-contrast oil paintings that use specific lighting and color variation within white tones to create empty interior spaces with an atmosphere that feels reverent and melancholy. My interest in memory and association started with painting figures directly, describing intimacy and connection in tiny moments or gestures, but as I continued to explore these ideas, my interest shifted to the echoes of those experiences, the fingerprints of attachment, brought on by instances of loss and isolation in my own life over the past two years. My more recent paintings have become more concerned with developing a visual language to talk about absence, loss, and the things that are left behind. Through experimentation, and with the restrictions of a limited color palette and value range, I’m trying to suggest memory and transience. As I continue working with these motifs, I’m looking for objects and spaces that feel weighed down by memory, to the point of almost becoming figures in their own right, with their own agency and gravity in the world.
Open Access
Charlie Dillon: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Dillon, Charlie, artist
The artist's statement: My paintings are a love letter to my friends and to the world around me, written in bold colors and intimate scenes. Through the permanency of paintings, I hope to make solid these snapshots of temporary moments, and with it capture something fleeting and usually lost to our bloated phone camera rolls or foggy memories. I am fascinated by the role that mundane technologies act to mediate, disrupt, or otherwise alter moments in our memories, whether that be something more direct like a phone camera recording a scene, or more indirect, like being on Twitter instead of being emotionally present in one’s life. Growing up with technology as both a barrier and a condenser of space, I’m interested in this mediation in connection to time. I aim to explore what power we give moments by tactilely and visually considering them with paint, through these forms of attention. With this, my practice involves collecting images from these quick moments with little or no staging. Currently, I’m excited by building compositions and color palettes to convey the everyday chaos and intimacy of my early 20s, which feels like a second coming-of-age, or an Adolescence 2.0. These paintings convey this transitory period; the disorder of it through partially obscured figures and the uncertainty through dancing around the canvas with brushstrokes and colors. Within this, I’m interested both in the cues that demonstrate individually who a person is; such as fashion, mannerisms, expressions, and gestures, while also being interested in more formal elements and building compositions structurally and with colors that convey universalities and common feelings or moods through these small, specific moments. Through these pieces, I am considering the reverence and power given to mundane moments by deliberately painting them for hours.
Open Access
Orion Gizzi: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Gizzi, Orion, artist
The artist's statement: For this series of artwork, I focused on how gender dysphoria affects me in my life. I am a transgender individual and gender dysphoria something I experience on an almost day to day basis; this causes me to have a lot of mixed emotions about how I feel about and in my own body such as insecurity, frustration, dissatisfaction, and embarrassment. I wanted to explore the ways in which how I feel about typically gendered situations has changed the further along in my transition I get; focusing mainly on prom and weddings. These situations are seen to have a more feminine connotation to them and are events in which clothing takes on a more gendered structure. Imagery such as dresses, flowers, cake decorations, and the color pink tend to also be seen as more feminine, which is why I have included those in my artwork. I also took inspiration from contemporary artists who incorporate cake piping tools to create textured paint that protrudes from the canvases. I used the cake piping technique in my own art to create the 3D floral decorations in Self Portrait and Prom Dress. Events like my prom and my future self’s wedding – a day that I used to dream of being a princess on – now no longer feel so special. There’s new feelings of discomfort and uncertainty about them now because wearing a dress and being viewed as a girl causes me gender dysphoria. My goal was to use very muddied and harsh colors on the wedding dress to display the feelings of discomfort and bitterness towards the conflict of no longer getting the chance to be the bride i dreamed of being as a kid, but also no longer wanting it. Since this project focuses mainly on internal feelings about my body, I felt that it was important to also be able to put the artwork on my body and wear it around. Painting on dresses allowed me to express these feelings in a true-to-life size. In addition, I wanted the painting of the bridal portrait to feel almost daunting and larger than life with how big it is. I wanted this to emulate the overbearing feeling of gender dysphoria.
Open Access
Taylor Snell: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Snell, Taylor, artist
The artist's statement: I am an environmental artist and I use earthly materials like botanical matter, soil and various natural objects in my work. I make a majority of my own pigments and inks from soil and plants, despite access to premade watercolors. This artistic process furthers the connection that my work and I have with the earth and environmental conservation. I am deeply inspired by the minute, miniscule details of nature that are too commonly overlooked in our fast-paced society. My work intends to depict these tiny facets of nature in abstracted ways, while also exhibiting how our earth and environment must be protected by humans, as earth provides us with life and sustenance. Many of my works hold messages about the environment and conservation, and express a deep reverence for the natural world. I prefer to depict these important ideas in a delicate fashion, as I do not resonate with works that mercilessly wallop viewers with message and meaning. I want to invite in consideration and change, rather than make people defensive and fearful. I choose to depict the beauty in the misunderstood, overlooked and ignored aspects of nature, because I believe that people will take action if they see the beauty and splendor that will be lost, versus humanity being painted as horrid and hopeless. I believe in humanity's ability to create positive change and my art strives to make a difference through the appreciation of Earth.
Open Access
Luis Santacruz: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Luis, Santacruz, artist
The artist's statement: I have forgotten the memories of my Mexican home. My family and I embarked on the journey to America when I was four. We were part of a Mexican diaspora, where violence, poverty, and corrupt politics would push us out, and the greener pastures of American capitalism would pull us in. During this transition, we had to leave everything - family pictures, furniture, heirlooms, and the very home that my father built for our family. We had to make it seem like we were only visiting the United States to avoid questioning by immigration agents. My Mexican identity and history stayed trapped in Mexico, caged by the politics that have defined our lives. This has caused a deep desire in myself to connect to my Mexican heritage and unravel the identity that has been suppressed by the idealization of the successful American. In the United States, I have always felt marginalized - "ni de aqui, ni de alla", (I am neither from here nor there). This idea of being an outsider has prompted me to shift my artwork to depict myself and my reality. I hope to infuse my work with the beauty and grace that I see in my identity and that of other immigrants - which is in stark contrast to what the media and politics have shaped us to be. My identity as an immigrant has given me limitations. I cannot visit family in Mexico or leave the country, I can't vote, and I cannot apply for citizenship. I am having to find part of my cultural identity through means of technology and the resources I have available to myself. I begin the paintings by looking at Mexican artists like Frida Kahlo, Nahum B. Zenil, and Jose Maria Valesco. I also look to classical artists like Diego Velasquez and contemporary artists like Njideka Akunyili Crosby, where a lot of my inspiration for subject matter and composition comes from. This results in the use of photo media to create my composition through layers that are reflective of different parts of my identity. I rely on old family photos to give me a glimpse and idea of life in Mexico. I also take photos myself to capture my family in the poses I feel are best for the composition. The plants and wildlife that surround my family are symbolic of the great virtues and positive attributes that my family has provided to our host country and as a reminder that we are a part of nature. I hope this work will make the viewer rethink what role immigrants have in shaping the American landscape.
Open Access
Elliot Stemen: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Stemen, Elliot, artist
The artist's statement: My work shows repetitive imagery, compositions, subject matter, and colors as a critique of the echo chamber of ideas that are presented on social media and media at large. There are mannerisms that people follow, habits that get formed all in a quest to be seen as a better, or more humorous, or more genuine, or more intelligent human being. The idea of needing to act a certain way or look a certain way or talk a certain way to gain the approval of others deeply frightens me. It takes away what makes us each unique and can limit new approaches to intuitive thought. Using flat oils and acrylics to depict scenes of human and animal interaction, I aim to show the monotony of ideas proposed through media. I enjoy working with large spaces of color, but deliberately shying away from using stencils or tape to create my linework. This is because I find it important to show my hand in the work, as I believe there is life behind these rather static compositions. I show motion through unsteady lines. Imagery of dead animals and industrial waste spawned by COVID-19 act a metaphor for the limitation of ideas that we succumb ourselves to when failing to question simple ideologies. Social media platforms in particular fail to offer us the motivation to engage with deeper conversations that we have in our daily lives. And at times can push a narrative that deeper conversations and better understandings are inherently less important because of manipulative functionalities like 'likes' and 'comments.' This is worrisome when social media has become a major, or the major, means of communication for many of us. The flat composition of the works also acts as a representation of what is happening in the images we view without the application of a perfect filter, witty caption, or predisposed attitude towards the person who is posting. I find it paramount that as a society we view social media sites, not through fantastical lens, but as they are.
Open Access
Emma Corwin: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Corwin, Emma, artist
The artist's statement: What is a pilgrimage? A pilgrimage is a journey of devotion. It is a search for transformation. It is not easy or simple. The destination is not always direct. There are religious pilgrimages, but there are also individual pilgrimages, and pilgrimages that seek cultural and systemic progress. My journey through this series has been a pilgrimage, just as the modern day social movements to end hate and racism should be regarded as such. This series explores different journeys of devotion on micro and macro scales. This is my capstone series of oil paintings on canvas. I challenged my process and tried to break the conventional approaches I typically take in the studio. The speed and application varied and the solutions that arose relied on balance; a balance between energetic and controlled compositions, a balance between flat and organic marks, a balance between delicate and abrasive applications and colors. This balance was echoed in the broader theme of pilgrimages to reflect the energy they possess. Through this series, the application of paint on canvas and the ability to identify marks and process became more important to me than the readability of subject matter. It is about the inside energy and emotions behind these pilgrimages. This series is an ongoing quest for recognition and transformation in journeys of devotion.