Church and Vultures

2021 
39 x 24in 
acrylic on masonite

The genesis for this work came from a scene I witnessed almost 30 years ago while landscaping across from a church, however, it was the recent events concerning the discovery of mass graves of indigenous children at numerous residential schools across Canada that moved me to take on this painting.

Both the Catholic Church (as an institution) and vultures are in the business of mitigating the effects of death on those left behind. The former on an emotional level, the latter, biological. Indeed, to me, vultures (especially Condors) even resemble priests, dressed in dark robes with white collars.

Vultures, perhaps because of their association with death, seem to have garnered an undeserved sinister reputation amongst many people.  They are in fact, indispensable agents of maintaining a balanced and healthy foodweb by helping to suppress bacterial outbreaks. I view them as noble. Further, they very rarely kill, as they lack the tools and physical power to do so. The same cannot be said for those people in whose care those displaced, disenfranchised indigenous children were placed in. The shutters of the steeple took on meaning for me as a metaphor for the Church’s systemic cover up of these atrocities.