These next pieces are based on the prompt "Devotion". Originally I wanted to make a piece that focused on both decay and devotion, but I felt that I should make them their own separate pieces. The one on the left depicting a burning cross to me was the best representation of what devotion at its most sinister is. Devotion could obviously be your love for a band you've been following for years or devotion to a really successful writer. In this case, I chose to focus on the racism and devotion that comes from religion. I understand the concept I went with can be deemed controversial, but that's what makes this piece unique to me. Religion has been (in my opinion) the biggest predecessor to genocide, slavery, shootings, racism, queerphobia, etc. This by no means is meant to take a stab at religions as a whole, but more how far people will go to show their devotion to one. I went with a burning cross too because of how the Ku Klux Klan has shown a disgusting form of devotion by believing that God chose white skin to be the superior race amongst all others. In interviews with KKK members, past and present, they have all made ties with religion within their own beliefs. Overall, I wanted to depict what I saw in the word devotion.

As a support piece to the cross painting, I made a wine bottle which is shown on the right. Another thing that I thought of when it came to devotion was the abuse that can come from devotion. Religion is already covered as a form of abuse with the cross painting, but the wine bottle covers self-abuse. I feel that there isn't much to clarify on this bottle painting because it should be up to the viewer to interpret it, but the main thought behind it was the idea of alcoholism and the destruction that can come from it, whether it's destroying mental state or physical state. The bottle can cover all forms of abuse.

Below are the two photos I used as a reference for the paintings.