This image was inspired by the works of Marlene Dumas. I also read several interviews with her to get to know the artist better. She often made works with themes that mixed socio-political subjects and sexuality or faith. My painting is based on mainstream pornographic imagery.

As the title indicates, the image speaks about religious fanaticism in multiple ways.

The character of a fanatic: obsessive, distorted, abnormal and more or less insane. The face is distorted to underlines this.

The connections between religious fanaticism and deviant sexuality: the obsessive nature of both phenomenas, the false impression of happiness and plenitude. Usually, the religious fanatics transform the cross and even the bible into fetish objects, this is why I depicted the person licking the cross.

Imposing too strong the religious dogmas and principles that forbid sexual activities, often leads to an increase interest in sexuality for young adults. As such, there are many so-called Christians who are actively participating in church related activities, but privately are sexually very active, regardless of the marital status. In very religiously strict families, children often develop devious sexuality or exaggerated interest in sex. The stronger a person is prohibited of doing something, the more he will want to do that.

I used suggestive colors for the main elements. The tongue is painted in an intense red, and the cross is pink, like a dildo. For the rest of the image, warm red and orange tones dominate. The texture of the image is really noisy. These aspects and together with the distortions of the person, suggest a type of neurotic eroticism and/or a perverted faith.