We Need Beauty
By Admin | April 25, 2009
A recent posting in the Global Zenit News should strike a cord with many of those who check out this blog. For me, it serves to underscore the value of the “three pillars” program to be established at Living Water College of the Arts.
ZENIT quotes three people involved with the project entitled “Catholic Canvas“, a co-production with EWTN, which will be used to showcase the greatest Catholic works of art and shed some light on their real purpose. Here are snippets from the posting and related interviews:
- We wanted to reclaim the original intent and function of these world-famous works. Using their creative genius, Michelangelo, Raphael and others were evangelizing through art, trying to “incarnate” eternal mysteries.
- Today, more than ever, we need beauty, and although some of the works we filmed are over 1,000 years old, they still proclaim objective truths clearly and powerfully to a frantic world lost in relativism.
- Sacred Art has never gone out of style and there is a reason for that, it appeals to people of all ages, races and creeds.
- …these works are charged with layers of meaning, and to succinctly explain the Church doctrine and salvation history behind a work of art is a lot more challenging that just presenting an agenda and then making the art fit.
- Amazingly enough, once you combine the elements of formal analysis and historical context with faith and scripture, you discover truth really is more beautiful than any secular fiction.
- I hope that viewers watching the invisible rendered visible in the art of the Vatican Museums learn to see that the lens of faith doesn’t dim a work of art but enhances it.
While Living Water College won’t be focused on the production of religious art, the integrated program employing the three pillars (Art, Faith and Reason) will certainly shed His light on eternal truth and beauty.
It’s going to be an uphill battle, trying to “reclaim the arts for the Lord”… but we’re each called to look above our heads and see whose banner we’re under.
If you’re a patron of the arts, what do you think of this observation made by Father Mark Haydu, the director of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums:
- Much of the role of art patronage seems to be in suggesting artists seek the most shocking or counter cultural without concern for uplifting, educating and directing the viewer to what is most sublime, most worthy of our contemplation. “Shock” art gets financing and pays dividends because it makes headlines.
Does this mean that graduates from Living Water College are destined to be financially challenged? I suppose that depends on folks like you and me.
Read the whole ZENIT posting here: http://www.catholic.net/index.php?option=zenit&id=25701
Topics: Christian Art | 2 Comments »
More Hope
By Admin | March 13, 2009
From an unassuming and small start (much like David), comes a force to be contended with…; more hope for a new dawn - a reclaiming of the arts for the Lord!
February 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Meet Alex Kendrick, a man of unshakeable faith in God, whose incredible success both in filmmaking and publishing can only be described as miraculous. Alex has six children, the eldest age ten and the sixth due to be born in April. He and his brother Stephen have no professional training in film and writing and are in full time ministry at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia.
The pair’s third film, “Fireproof,” starring Kirk Cameron of Growing Pains fame, was the highest-grossing independent film of 2008, with over $33 million in theatre sales, beating out such films as Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (starring Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz), and “Milk,” starring Sean Penn.
That success is all the more stunning considering the film was made with an all-volunteer, 1,200-person cast and crew, drawn mostly from Sherwood Baptist church. Fireproof is the third major film venture by the church’s volunteer production crew, dubbed Sherwood Pictures. “Flywheel,” produced in 2004, has sold 200,000 DVDs. “Facing the Giants,” in 2006, earned $10.1 million at the box office and has sold more than 1.6 million DVDs in 58 countries, in 14 languages.
Read more on LifeSiteNews: www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09022009.html
View the YouTube trailer for “Fireproof“: www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5lSu6GkC2k
Praise God!
Topics: Film | 1 Comment »
Art That Teaches…
By Admin | March 6, 2009
Some of you may know that our Director of Fine Arts, Frank C. Turner, is a talented and inspired writer of iconography. In 1991 he began studying iconography under Vladislav Andreyev and continued his learning as a frequent attendee of the Mount Angel Iconography Institute. Here he spent time under the instruction of Charles Rohrbacher, Mary Katsilometes, and Cathy Sievers, and has more recently studied with Father Gianluca Busi in Bologna, spending six weeks there in 2007. An article which we found poignant in voicing the living tradition of this art was reported by Zenit news service, “Theology’s Visual Side,” located here. To be able to use your senses in understanding God has always been such a necessity to the human mind. And it is yet another example of His willingness to teach us how to reach Him by being in this world, but not of it.
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Of Doves and Serpents
By Admin | January 27, 2009
In this InsideCatholic.com article titled Our Age’s Reigning Sin: Now on DVD, John Zmirak (Writer-in-Residence at Thomas Moore College, New Hampshire, USA) reviews a good film and makes a great point. The Film, Longford (HBOfilms, 2006) tells the story of British Lord Frank Pakenham, the 7th Earl of Longford, a Catholic, British politician who staked his name and career to campaign for a notorious serial killer. In addition to a powerful performance by Jim Broadbent (perhaps best recognized as professor Kirke in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) the film also reminds us that sometimes things, and people, are not as they seem. As followers of Christ we are called to be compassionate but not stupid.
Topics: Film | 1 Comment »
Naughty or Nice?
By Admin | January 21, 2009
Google is acting with a bit of a double standard these days. After the State-side elections in the fall, Proposition 8 in California was passed - a constitutional amendment which eliminated the rights of gay couples to marry. This was a major victory for the Christian and pro-life movements there. However, it recently came to our attention that Google announced it’s opposition to Prop 8 based on it’s “support for equality,” and filed an amicus brief challenging Prop 8. The full story, complete with the brief, can be found here on their official blog.
This week, however, Zenit announced that Google was teaming up with the Vatican “in a joint venture to give Benedict XVI his own YouTube channel.” On it’s own, this is an excellent method of bringing Christ back to the media; an example of the course communications media should be taking much more often. The full story here.
So, what’s up with Google these days? Moral qualms, anyone?
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Anything Goes?
By Admin | January 14, 2009
Every now and then one finds a story so bizarre that one stops and says “say what?” Here is just such a story: “Artists” in a so-called “performance piece” at the Wechselstrom gallery in Vienna, plan to remove a 22-week-old embryo from a living cow and eat it as part of an exhibition.
At least that is the story. Our calls to the gallery at (+43) 0676/3098066 have gone unanswered, but a number of animals rights groups are certain that the plans are real enough to have begun a series of protests and an on-line campaigns against the gallery.
According to an article in the Austrian Times the “artists” plan to carry out the stunt this Saturday and serve up the unborn calf with organic wine from local vintners.
Organizer Christoph Theiler claimed the calf’s mother would not be hurt saying: “The meat is very soft. The embryos are about as big as a cat. It will only take around five minutes. The adult cow will not notice anything.”
OK – stop the tape. What, you might ask, does eating a cow embryo have to do with art? An excellent question. With other “non–traditional” form of art such as extreme non contact methods (e.g., Pollock and the like) one can at least discuss the artist’s mastery of basic principals of form and color. Venture into the anything goes land of “it’s performance art because we say so” and well.., like missing the last step on a flight of stairs one never knows how one might land.
Though not intended for the Arts per se, G.K. Chesterton put it best when he quipped “when a man stops believing in God he doesn¹t then believe in nothing, he believes anything.”
Topics: Art | 1 Comment »
A Life Well-Lived
By Admin | January 9, 2009
A media hero died yesterday. Father Richard John Neuhaus, convert, leader and founder of First Things journal, passed away after a short battle with cancer on the evening of January 8. For the culture of art, life, communication and spirituality, he will be remembered for his impact on so many; an impact that will continue even after his departure. That’s the beauty of true art: its impression on us is timeless and will continue to grow beyond the artist. Please pray for the repose of his soul and the on-going work of Christian media.
Editor Joseph Bottum’s touching address of Fr. Neuhaus’ passing can be read here at the First Things website.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Defending Mary
By Admin | December 22, 2008
An image is worth a thousand… Apologies.
Mexico –
Playboy Magazine’s December edition, published Thursday December 11, just one day before the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, features model Maria Florencia Onori dressed as the Virgin Mary. The reaction to this cheap slur has been, thankfully, quick and harsh. Bill Donohue of the Catholic League called the stunt a “shameless rip-off of Catholic and Latino Iconography…” Well said Mr. Donohue, to say the least.
In a fast back peddle, Playboy Enterprises Inc., based in Chicago, released a statement Friday December 12, saying that the company did not approve the cover because the Mexican version of the magazine is published by a licensee. “While Playboy Mexico never meant for the cover or images to offend anyone, we recognize that it has created offense, and we as well as Playboy Mexico offer our sincerest apologies,” the company said.
Also in a prepared statement, Raul Sayrols, publisher of Playboy Mexico, said that “The image is not and never was intended to portray the Virgin of Guadalupe or any other religious figure.” “The intent was to reflect a Renaissance-like mood on the cover.”
Yeah, sure – and the interior of the December issue which features the model posed in various stages of undressed with blue mantels, a May crown and lots of roses was “Renaissance” too. Hey, guys - if you are going to insult Catholics with your cheap marketing at least have the guts to own-up to the campaign.
Topics: Push Back | No Comments »
Form Follows Function
By Admin | December 17, 2008
Remember Frank Lloyd Write? Many do not know that he was a Catholic – though he struggled – a lot. He is remembered for the famous axiom that “form should follow function.” And how true it is. In this short except from an interview with Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, the new Prefect of Divine Worship, we are reminded of Mr. Wright’s vision.
Topics: Form | No Comments »
We Are Not Alone
By Admin | December 12, 2008
The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
When we say “we,” we are referring to Living Water College and, of course, all of you who understand the essential connection between Art and Faith. On December 13, 2008, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin U.S.A., they are holding a conference called “Art and Architecture - A Return To the Sacred,” headed up by Archbishop Burke, the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura (the Vatican’s Highest Court). Good to hear that the Holy See knows that our churches need more than the “but this is post Vatican II architecture..,” line which we have heard for so many years. Click here to visit the Shrine’s website.
Topics: Christian Art | No Comments »