Paradigm Shift

“As a fifth-generation Mormon, I grew up on faith-promoting stories of my ancestors who left everything behind to build a new Zion in the wilderness of the American West. My religious paradigm was neat and tidy, literally a part of my DNA.

In the early 2000s, an enormous treasure trove of historical documents, letters, and journals from Mormon history flooded the internet. I realized that the tidy ‘Faithful Narrative’ that I had been raised to believe did not exist. The actual history was raw, messy, and filled with sexual intrigue.

My Paradigm Shift paintings spring from the devastating sense of loss that I experienced when my faith imploded. How I then sifted through the ruins to build a new faith paradigm, finding a deeper spirituality, a true sense of transcendence, and trusting my own voice. Each painting in the series traces the steps of my journey from a trusting follower, to a questioning believer, through a terrible sadness and eventually, transcendence.”

– Margaret Morrison, October 2022