Empyrean Gates

From Nick: I’ve spent the majority of my life rejecting religion— particularly the Catholic faith. Its teachings were leveraged against me and were part of me being groomed from a young age.  My unfortunate experiences with one religion bled into the rest.  Today, the word “God” when brought up in a conversation often requires me to mobilize considerable effort to not shut down. All of this said, I’m finding myself drawn more and more toward artistic depictions of the divine. I see the great artists of all cultures as practitioners of connecting with the divine in the physical form. While my distaste for God is a heavily reinforced pattern from my youth, I’m beginning to explore my own connection to the divine. I’ve commented on how peaceful and connected with all things I feel as I'm in the middle of my creation process. This, combined with my interest in Gothic architecture and the architecture of mosques, appears to be acting as my gateway back into the spiritual realm. This i