THE SPOTLESS OTHERS As a child I was always surprised to see the images of virgins in churches, frequently under some small dome on the wall. All those cardboard figures, dressed in clothes that gleamed in blue, gold, white, even black, and wearing resplendent or precious-stone crowns. On a visit to the temple I asked “And how many virgins are there?” The answer I got was only one, “The Virgin Mary”. I did not understand the answer and asked “Then why does it seem like there are so many?” “She is the same but they gave her name of the place where she appeared”, was the reply. From that moment on, my childish mind began to imagine the reason why all of them were pretty and were dressed as rich ladies of yesteryear. I would turn to see the ladies that were next to me and I imagined them dressed like the virgins from the temple – an old virgin, or a paralytic virgin. I thought that if God and the virgin were universal, then why were there no poor virgins or why had I never seen an obese virgin. Later, I began to create a series of images that filled that void within the Catholic “virginary”. Virgins that for me would represent the group of the “hidden ones” which because of their characteristics were never presented to the faithful believers, since they were not part of the known stereotype sharing the strong bond with the creator. So, today I present a series of virgins that exist in my imagination, but were never shown to the universal religious collective – hidden virgins that create a visual rift between what is already known and what was never taught to us. Virgins, who desacralize the popular model of virtue, but who today in the twenty-first century, could very well be included among that select group of untainted women.