A major part of my introduction to art came through Catholicism. As a child, my parents took me to Mass every Sunday, and to keep me from fidgeting during services I would be provided with a small notebook and a pen and told that I could draw. As a result, I was influenced by the devotional artwork that surrounded me in the church, especially the saints in the stained glass windows, but I was often confused by them. Individuals are often distinguished only by one or two attributes: St. Lucy holds severed eyes on a plate, St. Barbara holds a tower, but otherwise they appear identical. Worse, these attributes – often bizarre or grotesque – offer no enlightenment or opportunity to learn from the lives of the faithful.
I was taught that the purpose of art in the church is to provide a teaching device for the illiterate faithful; in theory, symbols could be read to communicate ideas about the meaning of Christian teachings. However, research showed that this has only ever commonly applied to depictions of Jesus and Mary. The appearances of saints in artwork appear to serve exclusively as mnemonics, and assume that the hagiography is already known.
I decided to depict saints in a way that would allow them to be understood without detailed background information, drawing on the rich body of symbols in other examples of Christian art. White lilies represent purity, while daisies stand for innocence, and so on. All my choices of color, pose, composition, and environment have been considered for their significance. Light is particularly important: St. John of the Cross is seeking it, St. Teresa of Avila is suffused by it, and St. Therese of Lisieux is content just to be called to it. I use many layers of translucent paint to create luminous scenes with a smooth finish that recall the stained glass that introduced me to the saints years ago.
There are hundreds of Catholic saints, so I started with writers, particularly those who had written about their relationship with God. The symbols that I use are frequently favorites of the saints themselves, used in a poetic fashion in their writings. The result is a deeply personal dialogue in which the saint attempts to convey something of the infinite, while I illustrate a holy and wholly human life. Ultimately, saints provide examples of people who lived spiritual lives, who reflected on their values and then sought their full potential. They are reminders that unremarkable people can do remarkable things, and that we can all strive to do good in the world and inspire that goodness in others.
I was taught that the purpose of art in the church is to provide a teaching device for the illiterate faithful; in theory, symbols could be read to communicate ideas about the meaning of Christian teachings. However, research showed that this has only ever commonly applied to depictions of Jesus and Mary. The appearances of saints in artwork appear to serve exclusively as mnemonics, and assume that the hagiography is already known.
I decided to depict saints in a way that would allow them to be understood without detailed background information, drawing on the rich body of symbols in other examples of Christian art. White lilies represent purity, while daisies stand for innocence, and so on. All my choices of color, pose, composition, and environment have been considered for their significance. Light is particularly important: St. John of the Cross is seeking it, St. Teresa of Avila is suffused by it, and St. Therese of Lisieux is content just to be called to it. I use many layers of translucent paint to create luminous scenes with a smooth finish that recall the stained glass that introduced me to the saints years ago.
There are hundreds of Catholic saints, so I started with writers, particularly those who had written about their relationship with God. The symbols that I use are frequently favorites of the saints themselves, used in a poetic fashion in their writings. The result is a deeply personal dialogue in which the saint attempts to convey something of the infinite, while I illustrate a holy and wholly human life. Ultimately, saints provide examples of people who lived spiritual lives, who reflected on their values and then sought their full potential. They are reminders that unremarkable people can do remarkable things, and that we can all strive to do good in the world and inspire that goodness in others.