Italian art school seeks to revive Catholic dominance of Sacred Art

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And let’s add Church architecture to mix. Somebody selected and approved the designs, and had access to the necessary funds to have ugly Churches built.

amazon.com/Ugly-Sin-Changed-Churches-Forthright/dp/1928832369

What happened to Catholic higher education in 1967? Something call “freedom” which meant cutting ties with the Church hierarchy, so no wonder too many Catholic colleges and universities are much like their secular counterparts today. Like I said, a massive attack that occurred inside the Church, at the street level and at Catholic schools. The wolves is sheep’s clothing. Peace, brother! Love! Uh, no. We were lied to during a period of time when our country, our government, respected and reflected Christianity - we were taught to welcome the stranger.

catholichistory.net/Events/LandOLakesStatement.htm

Having lived through it, it was difficult to see what was coming in the near future. I hope that’s clear to younger people.

Peace,
Ed
 
I would love to attend a school somewhere for the Arts. They have a place here in the city where I live- its for little kids and people with more money and time then… I have lol

I love watercolor painting, I learned my skills mostly from Youtube.com. I don’t just do a wash over a line drawing, My work is much older then that. It does not mimic photography- that is an other hobby of mine. lol It’s not “modern art” either. I have studied works of Micheal Angelo and Claude Monet and finding out how they did work has not been easy to say the least.

I do it to relax and the first series of paintings I did, were of the Stations of the Cross. I started doing them last Lent when I was preparing to join the church. In fact my 1st service of the Stations of the Cross I attended had a huge impact on me, What happened that night was the main reason I joined the church. Up until that time, I was not sure that was where the Lord really wanted me.

I have painted only three portraits, Mary, Jesus and St. Micheal. But I doubt, I’ll do anymore. The detailing is crazy and almost impossible with watercolors. lol
I have shared this, not to brag - I’m not worthy of such. But to let you know that I too, have a passion for the Arts and would love to be able to use my work for the Lord some how and be able to improve it beyond what it is now.
 
Acrylic paint is the way to go. Watercolor is more difficult.

Peace,
Ed
 
To KEP1983 -

We, right now, meaning us creatives who are Catholic, need to reform the culture at any level at which we are competent. Hope and the Light of Faith - not any hint of despair - will prevail because Jesus said that the gates of Hell will not prevail against His Church. We have the entire internet to present authentic Catholic art. We can bypass the corrupted schools, and the corrupted media. I reject and do not watch or listen to 98% of the media. I know they do not want to entertain me - they want to change me and anyone who pays attention.

vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_29061936_vigilanti-cura_en.html

amazon.com/Infinite-Bandwidth-Encountering-Christ-Media/dp/1931018677/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

Note that in the greatest attack against the Church time period, The Legion of Decency was replaced by something else. Coincidence? Not a chance.

amazon.com/The-Cross-Cinema-National-1933-1970/dp/0275941930

Peace,
Ed
 
I realize that a lot of people like working with Acrylics because it is easier- but that is why I love working with Watercolors. I love the challenge. There are things you can do with Watercolors that you can not do with Acrylics. You can only thin Acrylics so much and then the pigment disperses from the binder.

Everyone has their own gift and passion - I feel blessed with mine! 🙂
 
KEP1983 said:
And I’m afraid you have it wrong about the influence between art and society. Culture is shaped by the arts-- music, art, film, television, etc-- not the other way around. Sure,the Cardinals and Popes paid for the Renaissance art. But their beliefs came from the Bible and the arts. Fra Angelico, Dante, and the Gospel writers all preceded the Cardinals and Popes of the Renaissance and shaped the culture that these Cardinals and Popes were born into. Artists, especially musicians and filmmakers, influence the way the youth think, and the mindset of the youth are the foundation of the future of every culture. If you degrade the youths minds with Lady Gaga and The Daily Show, it’ll influence the way they think, and the majority of them will grow up to be sexular humanists angry at religion. This is why dictators such as Hitler and Stalin embraced media and the arts and aimed them directly at the youth. Whoever wins the youth wins the future. There have been numerous scientific studies to show this, and even Bishop Paprocki recently talked about this.
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I always found MGM’s use of the expression “Ars Gratia Artis” rather interesting. (Art for the sake of Art). Does this mean they don’t want to influence culture, in your opinion?
 
Interesting thread. It comes down to this: don’t wait for someone else like a gallery or art critic or local government or church to support artists. You want better art, buy it. Support the artists on a local level. Art communities all over the country are trying hard to get a foothold, but no one shows to the events but the artists. It’s nice to look at each other’s works, but it’d be even nicer to have someone appreciate it enough to take it home.

Art has moved on from the heady high days of the Renaissance and, while we still have realism and photorealism, we don’t have the symbolic language that was in place up through the eighteenth or nineteenth century. People are not literate in symbol, allegory, or Scripture enough for religious works to have the deeper meaning, beyond the obvious. Even the still lifes are not what they appear–that’s not a basket of fruit and butterflies, it’s a metaphor. But we don’t have that language anymore, and nothing has taken its place to develop a new visual language. So artists have to write their own language and the way art has evolved it’s more expressive than photographic. So ‘modern art’ isn’t obvious. It’s abstracted or emotional or expresses an idea. Art will change again–it always does. It changes with the people who make it and who buy it.

While I love the Old Masters and use many of their techniques and symbols, it’s very shortsighted to idolize paintings that most of us really can’t read. We can look at a painting and see what’s going on, but our worlds are so different there’s no context we can grasp. If we want great art now, we’re going to have to make it, and it’s not going to look like what they did four, five hundred years ago. The languages have changed, we’re a people who have lost their appreciation for symbol and metaphor, and have lost the willingness to ask, “What is the artist telling me?”

BTW, on the subject of acrylic/watercolor, one of the benefits of acrylic is that it can behave as either a watercolor or as an oil–additive or subtractive color as the artist chooses. I’ve used it as a watercolor many times with good effect, but my preference is and always has been since I’ve been introduced to it, oils. 🙂
 
Oils are great. My friend introduced me to them, but I stuck with acrylics because I … uh, just liked them. 🙂

OK- bottom line:

We KNOW what the “better” art galleries in the trendy and upscale parts of town have to show. Their language is one of distortion, offense or irrational and indecipherable works.

CATHOLIC artists are on the internet. No need to form an association, just a very obvious place to show our work with links to others. Of course, we should not expect people to buy new art that reflects the present if it’s not executed well, but there are plenty of tutorials out there put up by realist artists, themselves, on youtube, for example. Some have made me gasp at how fast an artist can draw a very realistic figure. The trick is to find those that go slow enough where you can learn. Let’s network.

And the subject matter can run from the strictly sacred to Catholic-themed graphic novels and comic books in electronic format. I know how long it takes to draw and letter a page. I’ve done it.

Take it a step at a time. I mean, it seems everyone I know knows about the dysfunctionally named deviantart site - where all art is not deviant at all, but that’s the mindset of too many today.

New mindset. Respectful, imbued with reverence or clean fun or real moral character. To the purely sacred.

Peace,
Ed
 
I would love to see a Catholic site that was a cleaner version of deviantArt. I happen to be a member out there simply 'cause its the only place I have found devoted to artists. That being said though - you really have to watch where ya go out there. There is a lot of nasty stuff out there that should be censored but isn’t.
 
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