..::Praised Be Jesus Christ::..

+JMJ

Praised be Jesus Christ! Greetings to you and your holy angels! Happy Easter to all!

Today I think I will rant. A rant about a need for sacred artists. No, I'm not talking about the ones that 'wreckovate' Churches or make God-awful sculptures and 'interpretive' images. I'm talking about making churches look like churches. Including sacred art and architecture that really leads one into a prayerful spirit. Brickwalls unadorned and huge aren't exactly prayer evoking. Neither are warehouses and buildings meant for other purposes. What happened in the world of sacred art? Seriously. I know that once we hit the 20th century we had Dada and surrealism, cubism and the whole lot. Even before that we had van Gogh and Cezanne shocking people with their 'scandalous' methods. Today we look at them and see no shock. We are used to it. I am not saying that modern art is bad or terrible. I am just saying that it really doesn't have a home in the church (and that is church with a little c, mind you). Sacred art should become sacred. I'd like to use the Eastern Church and their icons as an example. People are still writing these icons the same way they were back in the times of Byzantium. Very little has changed about it. These icons continue to adorn the Eastern churches, even in some very modern looking ones. These holy images are 'windows to heaven.' Sometimes, looking back, I find myself as more of a Poussinist. I believe that art should have a honorable and noteworthy subject. That is just me. I enjoy abstract art, I even do a little 'modern' art myself, but I do find that sacred art is a genre/style set apart from all these styles of our modern age. Images of the Baroque evoke some of the same emotions and passions, and I would say far more than some images done in an abstracted or stylized manner. Why? It could be because they are spelled out before us dramatically. It is life-like, something we can see actually happening. The images become real. These are no longer just events in 'some ancient book'. No. They are real things that happened to real people. Put Jesus in all time. Not just this time, but eternally. And, no, I don't mean futuristic or aliens by this. You can show Jesus with people of our time, ordinary people. I find the lack of real sacred art and sacred architecture a real travesty in today's churches, but it is also a relief that it is returning in some newly built churches. So long styles of the 60s! See-ya 70's! Adios 80's! Welcome Jesus Christ! May You be praised everywhere always! Eternal Lord, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God Forever and Ever.

The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
-Michelangelo

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.
-Leonardo DaVinci