“Stand Fast in the Faith, and love one another.” The historical account of the death of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, is rock solid. It was written by Perpetua herself. Perpetua was a young, well educated, noblewoman who made the decision to follow the example of her mother by becoming aContinue Reading
Goodness and Beauty Pope Saint John Paul II said, “The artist has a special relationship to beauty. In a very true sense it can be said that beauty is the vocation bestowed on him by the Creator in the gift of “artistic talent.” (Letter to Artists, paragraph 3) So theContinue Reading
“We are made in the image and likeness of the Creator of all things and as such, we share in His creative power. Man is, in effect, as J.R.R. Tolkien put it, a sub-creator.” The Parable of the Painter There was once an artist, a painter of consummate skill whoContinue Reading
“The Christian Artist uses their gifts to lift the hearts and minds of people to God,” What is the true vocation of a Christian Artist? Living as we do in a post-Christian age, the answer to this question has become confused and muddled. The word vocation comes from the Latin “vocare,”Continue Reading
“Geometric pattern is the abstract art of Christianity.” We tend to think of abstract as something that has come about only within the last one hundred years. But liturgical artists have had their own form of abstract art for nearly two thousand years. Geometric pattern is the abstract art ofContinue Reading
Rejection and failure are facts of our existence. When an artist’s work is rejected or negatively critiqued, he or she is often told “don’t take it personally, they are not rejecting you, just your work.” This is a reflection of post-enlightenment thinking that considers art an end unto itself. ItContinue Reading
What is the purpose of artistic talent? I am sure most, if not all of us, are familiar with the opening of a movie produced by MGM Studios. It depicts a roaring lion surrounded by the words “Ars Gratia Artis.” This is the Latin translation of the phrase “art forContinue Reading
In his “Letter to Artists,” Pope John Paul II put liturgical art as perhaps the highest expression of the creative gift. But he noted that all art has value as it pursues the artist’s vocation of bringing beauty to the world. He even noted that “bad art” has a place,Continue Reading