THE PURE AND THE DAMNED

If you wish to KNOW THYSELF, express yourSELF creatively. Nothing will challenge your ego and authenticity more than facing your own shadow—your weaknesses, disempowering thoughts, and beliefs about yourself and reality.

When undertaking anything creative, we often encounter two types of blocks or fears:

1) Fear of outside judgment: What will others think of me doing this? Will others like or pay for this? People will criticize me.
2) Fear of self-judgment: I can’t do this (confidence/anxiety), or I’m not good enough (shame/guilt).

These fears often create inner conflict—a battle between the mind and the heart. Temporary resolutions might come through avoidant behaviors, addictions, distractions, or other unhealthy coping mechanisms. These are symptoms of ignoring your own innate Divinity and instead choosing to live in ways that disempower your very BEING.

We are creative BEINGS, and creation and expression are in our nature. The process itself isn’t always pleasurable (ask anyone who has given birth or created life), yet this is how we come into intimate contact with ourselves—our eternal souls—and their purpose and expression here.

The Pure and the Damned was a video idea I conceived in 2021 while visiting friends and relatives in Eastern Europe. Death, to me, is a celebration of life—a transition where the soul leaves its temporary physical body and returns home to love. It’s the greatest taboo and fear humanity must overcome to truly grasp the nature of this universe.

Jesus defeated the illusion of death through death via the act of resurrection (reincarnation). This material reality is nothing but a dream, and we can wake from the dream of 'real' life any time by consciously CHOOSING to align with love and God.

"Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."
(John 14:12, NIV)

The song The Pure and the Damned resonated with me deeply when I first heard it in the film Good Time. Iggy Pop’s baritone vocals tugged at my heartstrings, and I knew intuitively that a little video diary had to come together. I know the vocals aren’t perfectly lined up, but you work with what you have.

Shot in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kalush in 2021. In-joy!