Ron Pease

Holy Land. The term can conjure a myriad of images in the mind of many of us and yet to others create a singular and static vision only. I admit to belonging to the former group. Lately to me holy land has come to describe first and foremost that whirling historical dervish we know as the Middle East. But it can just as easily indicate that rarefied ground under my feet this morning as I breathed in the first light of day. It can mean that sanctified place forecast by the prophets to be waiting for us in the after life but it can also mean the realization of utopian dreams right here and now on terra firma. It could stand for a nation blessed with the ability to provide for and protect its citizens without extraneous agendas. To some it can mean the elimination of that very same nation. It means for many people simply a place to imagine and strive for made up of bits and pieces of their own experience and psyche, a place of peace made after their own image as it were. When I think about it I realize that the term denotes so many different possibilities that it can provide a virtually endless source of inspiration for an artist like myself. Concerns of topicality, history, religion will always inform my work to varying degrees, giving it a slightly sociopolitical cast, but one thing has been both constant and pressing for me in the last few years - a desire to examine and experience the multifaceted notion of the Holy Land.