Dogma

Dogma: a point of view or tenet put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds.

“Dogma” is an acrylic painting about perception shaped by conditioning. A face emerges through layers of distortion, obscured by a red target: a lens that dictates what is seen before truth can surface. The figure is marked and measured, not for who she is, but for what she has been taught to represent.

Dogma teaches us to be veiled from the truth. The innocent becomes threatening; the human, a demon. The gunman does not believe he is harming something pure; he believes he is eliminating evil. Yet beneath the projection, the figure remains harmless and vulnerable. The narrative decides what we are allowed to see.