“When we face criticism of our work we must discern which type of criticism it is.” Jesus once told us, His followers, that the greatest commandment is to love God with our whole heart, soul and mind. And the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. JesusContinue Reading
“borders… are just as important within the composition to help the viewer understand the work.” Continuing in a series of posts intended to offer guidelines in renewing the Gothic style, let us consider the division spaces within the composition. While sacred art draws us into sacred time, the imageContinue Reading
“The border around sacred art … alerts us that we are crossing over into something special, something sacred.” Following the example of the Iconographic, if we want to revive Gothic as a living tradition we need to start offering some rules or conventions to guide artists who wish to workContinue Reading
“the gift of artistic ability, … places those so gifted in a unique position to protect, and encourage and empower the people of God.” The First Shepherd Why do we refer to Peter as the first “Pope? When Jesus was arrested and taken before the Jewish leaders, Peter followed behindContinue Reading
“The nature of the Christian artist is to sacrifice” Made in the Image and Likeness of God There has been much discussion and spilled ink on the topic of what defines a “Christian Artist.” Artists themselves generally dislike the label for a number of reasons. First of all, in theContinue Reading
“His goal is to make us into the person He created us to be.” A Question of Trust It has been said that mankind has only ever had one problem; we want to be like God. Which is another way of saying we have trust issues. We do not trustContinue Reading
“A Christian always looks at the present and the future, not the past. We do not forget the past but use it as a guide for our future.” The Past Fools Us In the 2012 remake of the movie “Total Recall,” Douglas Quaid is fighting to recall who he trulyContinue Reading
“Embrace your authenticity. Be the person God meant for you to be with all your quirkiness and eccentricities.” Beauty vs Authenticity In his book “Blink,” Malcom Gladwell recounts the story of the “Getty Kouros.” In 1984 the J.Paul Getty museum unveiled its latest acquisition, a two thousand year old marbleContinue Reading
“As Catholics, we receive tradition, but we grow, and develop, and build upon it.” Lessons Learned How do we revive the Gothic form as a living artistic tradition? What should we do? What should we avoid? We can learn some lessons from the revival of the Iconographic form. The revivalContinue Reading
“Sacred art is not about depicting peoples and events as they actually looked” Naturalism vs Abstraction The underlying foundation of the Gothic form is the Iconographic. That is, the Gothic form builds on the Iconographic. The artists of the Medieval period worked in a visual language that was partly receivedContinue Reading