SARAH OLSON

Rise of the Soul: Small drawings, 2003-2005

In 2003, I became particularly interested in The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, called The Rise of the Soul as well as the story of creation depicted in the Nag Hammadi corpus about Sophia’s creation of the world. In the gospel of Mary Magdalene, there is a passage where Christ describes to Mary, “The Rise of the Soul”. In this gospel, Mary is Christ’s most trusted disciple, and he describes to her how the soul takes a journey through different passions of the material world before ultimately finding rest in “Silence”, a feminine personification of the Divine.  The Rise of the Soul and Sophia’s Creation of the World is a springboard for many of these images. Some of these drawings have gone beyond these narrative themes. Rather than showing the soul dancing between different passions, I am interested in the nature and humor of passion itself.