Our earliest indication of Human self-awareness at the dawn of history comes from artworks, and the artist's favorite subject, then as now, has been our bodies. But ever since we discovered the marvelous concept of civilization, we've had trouble allowing our bodies to co-exist with our minds, so full of power are they. One of the cultures most uncomfortable with the body is America, the first culture in 40,000 years that creates images of our favorite subject without sexual parts, as if we were correcting God's mistakes. When we depict the body outside of art, say for educational purposes, we tend to use sexless Barbie-like diagrams devoid of details. Some people might find these drawings surprising, and if so, maybe this is why.

As a figurative artist, I find the human body, in all its glory, to be the most beautiful thing in Creation. But anyone who believes that we humans were created in goodness has to agree that our design is not only good and beautiful, but also holy. Questions of artistic style, abstraction or distortion aside, to depict a body in detail, while glossing over sexual parts for non-artistic purpose exposes a shame that negates that holiness. Shame is like chocolate: a little in moderation now and then is appropriate, but binging is dangerous. I'm not going to tell anyone that they can't have any shame in their religion, but the truth is you can't find the body simultaneously shameful and holy.

Tim Holmes
2003