What’s New

My final type of Marian image this month is known among Western Christians as The Virgin of Mercy and among Eastern Christians as The Protection of the Mother of God, where Mary spreads a cloak or veil to offer a place of safety to the needy. I have three variations from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection to present, beginning…

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The fourth major type of Marian imagery found in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection is The Virgin Enthroned, where Mary sits in regal splendor with the Christ Child on her lap. This devotional motif is also known as "The Seat of Wisdom," where Mary is viewed as a throne for her divine son, the source of all truth. I…

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My Mary in May art offerings this week are four contemporary variations of The Virgin of the Sign, one of the oldest types of Marian imagery, whose prototype can be found in 4th century Roman catacombs. The title of this portrait of Mary with a second image of Christ contained within a circle representing her womb is taken from…

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A devotional image of Mary, beloved around the world, is the Virgin of Tenderness, also known as "The Icon of Sweet Kisses," where the Virgin Mary rests her cheek against the cheek of the baby Jesus. This endearing portrait of mother and child is said to have been painted from life by the Apostle Luke. I'm presenting it in…

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May is the month traditionally devoted to the Virgin Mary. During the next five weeks, I'll be presenting images from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection representing four different types of Marian portraiture, beginning with one of the oldest and most revered depictions of the Mother of Christ, known as "The Virgin Who Shows the Way." Mary supports the Christ…

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                                    CHRIST IS RISEN!
                                    He is risen, indeed!
                                     HAPPY EASTER!

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                                  UKRAINIAN WAY OF SORROW
                                        The Angel of Death
                              In memory of Mikhailo Movchan (b.1981),
                          killed in the battle for Bakhmut, July 14, 2023

                           “No one has greater love than this, to lay down
                                       one’s life for one’s…

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                                   UKRAINIAN WAY OF SORROW 
                                                Enshrouded
                          When they look on the one whom they have
                        pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns
                         for an only child and weep bitterly over him as
                                       one weeps over a firstborn.
                                       Zechariah 12:10 (NRSVue)
                                 

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                                  UKRAINIAN WAY OF SORROW
                                               Christ Attacked
                         "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
                                Why are you so far from helping me,
                                  from the words of my groaning?"
                                         Psalm 22:1 (NRSVue)
                       
                                         

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                                   UKRAINIAN WAY OF SORROW
                                              Ukrainian Crucifixion
                          For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
                          so that everyone who believes in him may not perish
                                          but may have eternal life.
                                              John 3:16 (NRSVue)

                                     UKRAINIAN WAY OF SORROW
                                             The Road to Golgotha
                                      Bear one another’s burdens, andmore >>

                                      UKRAINIAN WAY OF SORROW
                                              The Man of Sorrows
                             He was despised and rejected by others; a man
                             of suffering and acquainted with infirmity, and
                             as one…

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                                            UKRAINIAN WAY OF SORROW
                                                              Prayer

                                     "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup
                                     from me, yet not my will but yours be done."
                                                 Luke 22:42 (NRSVue)

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When Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, few outside observers believed the Ukrainians would be able to hold off Putin's brutal war machine for long. To the astonishment of the world, three years later they continue to fight back, offering an inspiring example of true heroism in resisting tyranny. During this time so full of memories, it…

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The final new artwork I have to display from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection, interpreting Christ's story about the Last Judgment in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, is the work of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Artist Ulyana Tomkevych who belongs to the new school of iconography in the West Ukrainian cultural…

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My reading of Christ's account of the Last Judgment in the Gospel of Matthew suggested visual motifs for a collage story box depicting Christ the Judge separating the sheep from the goats (who embod human types) based on whether those under judgment practiced six acts of mercy to "the least of these brothers…

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This week's art selection picks up where we left off last time with the account of the Last Judgment in the Gospel of Matthew, when the king, representing Christ, separates the sheep from the goats based on how they have treated "the least of these brothers and sisters of mine" with the sheep rewarded for their six acts of…

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“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and…

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This charcoal drawing from Filipino-American Artist Wayne Forte was specially commissioned by the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection for the 2017 Advent art exhibition, Family in Flight, looking at the journey of Mary, Joseph, and the Baby Jesus to Egypt in the context of the strident debate at the time over who was welcome in America. I asked Wayne to…

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In Giotto’s depiction of the Flight into Egypt, the Italian Medieval Master shows the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child riding sidesaddle like a Queen and heir apparent in a royal procession. This image and countless like it down the centuries mask the grim reality of the story in the Gospel of Matthew, when an angel warns Joseph to…

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German-American Illustrator Fritz Eichenberg created the image I've chosen this week for the Feast of the Epiphany, a wood engraving of the Adoration of the Magi (with a difference) to commemorate the United Nation's International Year of the Child in 1979. Eichenberg has recast Joseph, Mary, and the Christ Child as Vietnamese boat people to draw attention to the…

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              And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in
             swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there
                       was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:7, KJ)

          Find a place for "them" in your heart this Christmas season

                                     The Sacred Art Pilgrim
…

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The story of Joseph, Mary, and the Baby Jesus taking to the road has special global resonance at a time when the UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates there are close to 125 million "forcibly displaced" people around the world. This Advent Sunday, I'm presenting six pieces on the Flight into Egypt by international arts and crafts workers in…

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Man. Woman. Child. Animal. These four universal motifs all come together in art about the Flight into Egypt, offered in two contrasting styles in my picks this week on the theme from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection. Cypriot Icon-maker Charalambos Epaminonda presents the post-Christmas story in a neo-Byzantine manner where the donkey looking…

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There was no question what my choice of a subject would be this year for the Advent and Christmas seasons, given the bitter and defamatory debate over "illegal aliens" during the election campaign. Beginning this Sunday and into the first weeks of 2025, I will be posting images from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection of the Flight into Egypt,…

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With the beginning of the Advent Season a few days away, I'm posting the last story box in my series with a theme appropriate for this special time of year. My new “Voices in the Wilderness” collage is about prophets, old and new. Much is made of their ability to foretell the future,…

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My fifth biblical diorama offers a modern reading of Psalm 148 aimed at climate change deniers. Each verse in this paean to God is matched with images of the ways humanity has despoiled and destroyed these wonders of Creation that praise their Maker in the ancient text. While God looks down in grief…

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The Puritans came to the New World  to found what their leader, John Winthrop, using the words of Jesus, called “A City on a Hill,” a model society for all to follow based on Christian values. In my fourth collage story box, we fast forward to the…

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Growing up in a Fundamentalist church, I came to know by heart moral tales in the Bible like the Old Testament story of how the ravenously hungry Esau gave his birthright away to his trickster brother, Jacob, for a bowl of soup—called “a mess of pottage.” My third collage box is directed at Evangelical Christians who have compromised their…

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The assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 must never be forgotten, doubly disturbing for me because of the pictures of Christ carried by the rioters Donald Trump instigated to “Save America” and overturn the presidential election results by violent means. My second collage story box contrasts this event with a…

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Regular visitors to the website who know of my passion for the contemporary sacred art of Ukraine will not be surprised to learn the theme of my first collage story box in fifteen years is the tragic human cost of Ukraine's struggle against Russian invaders. Inspiration came from a sticker of "Saint Javelin"…

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While reorganizing my art collection recently, I took a closer look at three “found object” artworks in display boxes I made over 15 years ago. A lot has changed since then.Thousands of images can be downloaded on the internet, all kinds of unusual objects can be picked up from on-line sources, and there is no shortage of boxes from…

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On this day honoring the hosts of heaven, I've selected six images by international artists in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection, depicting angelic activities in heaven and on earth. The top row shows angels praising God in heaven. French Printmaker Jacques Beltrand offers the most classical view of angelic music makers. An unknown Haitian metalworker has cut out two…

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My final "Angel Artist"in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection is Russian-Ukrainian Printmaker Konstantin Kalynovych, best known for his exquisite book plates with borrowings from the works of Great Masters of Art like Bosch, Durer, and Rembrandt. Kalynovych describes these detailed pastiche pieces as “winter dreams,” where the meanings are “murky, like a dream on a foggy winter night.” He…

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My third featured "Angel Artist" in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection is Benton Spruance, a Philadelphia-based printmaker who can rightly be called the lithographer's lithographer for his innovative use of this stone slab graphic art technique. Spruance had no great love for organized religion but was drawn to the great themes of the Bible. He was especially interested in…

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We return to Georgia this week to meet the second major "Angel Artist" in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection--Rudolph Valentino Bostic, the self-taught painter from Savannah who created illustrations of Bible stories with house paint on recycled cardboard. Bostic was a visionary artist who depicted what he saw with the eye of his imagination rather than copying from life,…

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Western Christians celebrate Michaelmas on September 29th, the feast day commemorating the Archangel Michael and All Angels. In this month devoted to the hosts of heaven, I'll be highlighting four "angel artists" in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection who have often depicted these divine emissaries in their art. Howard Finster, the preacher-folk artist…

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In this week's tribute to James Quentin Young, I have two newly acquired artworks by the late Minnesota assemblage artist to add to the gallery of his biosketch page, revealing the ingenious ways he transformed odds and ends of found objects into strikingly different cross images. Young expressed his lifelong fascination with roadside…

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One of the first artworks to be added to the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection was the beautifully minimalist assemblage cross, From His Side, by James Quentin Young, won in a silent auction at a 2009 Christians in the Visual Artists conference. It would be followed in the years since then by other "found object" cruciform pieces by the Minnesota…

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So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations.( Psalm 79:13, KJV)
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears. (Revelation…

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The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for…

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