“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
“Christianity is based on timeless truths, truths that speak to all people of all times. But to get the people to listen, we have to be creative.” Barnabas and Paul The apostles Barnabas and Paul, followed a pattern as they travelled from city to city. Most likely they would startContinue 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 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
“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
“Saint Lazarus the Painter believed that we do not live for the here and now, we live for the future. We are not content with what is, but struggle to achieve what should be and what will be.” Saint Lazarus the Painter Saint Lazarus the Painter was born in ArmeniaContinue Reading
“While we may no longer be an illiterate society, we are quickly becoming an aliterate one.” Teacher and Storyteller Artists can take on many roles. In the Middle Ages, artists working in the Gothic form often took on the roles of teachers and storytellers. There is perhaps no better exampleContinue Reading