Sanctioned Blindness is a series of four acrylic collage portraits of Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, rendered from reference material derived from the daguerreotype discovered in 2022 within a Smith family locket, identified by the historians who examined it as the only known photographic image of Joseph Smith.  Inspired by personal experience, the illusion of sanctity in the founding Latter-day Saint is examined from a historically accurate perspective.  Smith’s theological doctrine – influencing members to blind obedience in exchange for a promised eternity and its effect on members – is critically depicted in this series.