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… more >>
I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not… more >>
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours,… more >>
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40:11, KJV)
Before you head off on a summer search for still waters and green pastures, I've selected art from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection with…
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My series on Marian art for the month of May from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection comes to end this Sunday with a depiction in ceramics of an image of Mary from Mexico that has found particular favor among Roman Catholics around the globe: the Virgin of Guadalupe. According to tradition, the Virgin appeared to the Aztec peasant, Juan…
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For Pentecost Sunday in this Marian month, I'm featuring artworks of the Virgin Mary and the Disciples at the descent of the Holy Spirit by two 20th century French artists in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection. We see her depicted as the central figure amid Christ's followers at Pentecost in her role as Mother of the Church, a title…
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May is the month traditionally devoted to the Virgin Mary, and I'll be showcasing Marian-themed pieces in the coming weeks by international artists in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection. As we remember our mothers this Sunday, I have a particularly caring and maternal image of the Mother of Christ to present known as the Madonna of Mercy, where the…
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Christos Anesti!
Alithos Anesti!
Khrystos Vokres!
Voistynu Vokres!
Happy Easter to my Eastern Orthodox
and Ukrainian Greek Catholic friends!
The Sacred Art Pilgrim
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Mary stood at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked in, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman,… more >>
The first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst...But Thomas, one of the twelve...was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the… more >>
Two of [Jesus’ disciples] went that same day to a village called Emmaus... And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What… more >>
In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from… more >>
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole more >>
land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed,
and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus,
crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands
I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his…
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know more >>
me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And
I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not
belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen
to my…
He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing more >>
in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised
and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with
infirmity, and as one from whom others hide their faces, he was
despised, and we held him of no account. Surely…
In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered more >>
them. To you they cried and were saved; in you they trusted
and were not put to shame. But I am a worm and not human,
scorned by others and despised by the people. All who see me
mock me; they sneer at me; they shake…
Then [Jesus] said to them all, “If any wish to come after me, let more >>
them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who
lose their life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit them
…
Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say
that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the
world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth
listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”
(John 18: 37-38, NRSV)
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When I paint Jesus there are so many different facial expressions I can get. You could paint an infinity, millions, and trillions of pictures of Jesus and every single one will be different. (Peter Howson, When the Apple Ripens, documentary film, 2023)
British Artist Peter Howson has been fascinated by Christ portraiture,…
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Carl Dixon has taken on over forty commissions in the fifteen years he has worked with the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection. My final new offering from the Mississipi-based self taught artist, on the eve of the season of Lent, posed a particular challenge for him. It is a single mixed media, carved wood…
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Southern Visionary Artist Carl Dixon takes on the contentious issue of gun violence in this week's new mixed media carved wood panel painting from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection. The scene at the top of the picture shows Cain slaying his brother, Abel, tracing the murderous intentions of the human heart back to…
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This week's new mixed media carved wood panel painting from Southern Folk Artist Carl Dixon illustrates a momentous event in the history of the Early Church, when the Apostle Peter had a vision, directing the first Jewish followers of Christ to welcome Gentiles into their emerging faith community. As recorded in the Book…
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In remembrance this week of the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., I'm presenting a new work by Southern Visionary Artist Carl Dixon, commemorating a pivotal event in the civil rights leader's campaign to end racial discrimination against African-Americans. In Dixon's carved wood panel painting, "We Shall Overcome," he recreates a…
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The coming of the Wise Men is celebrated throughout the Hispanic world on January 6th, El Dia des Reyes (The Day of the Kings), a time when gifts are traditionally exchanged. In this 1979 serigraph poster, Puerto Rican Graphic Artist Isabel Bernal shows a young girl, smiling in anticipation of good things to come, as she walks past a…
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The Fourth Sunday of Advent: Love and Restoration
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:16-17, KJV)
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The Third Sunday of Advent: Joy and Adoration
My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior...For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. (Luke 1:46-47, 49-50, KJV)
The reading…
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The Second Sunday of Advent: Faith and Preparation
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exhalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough… more >>
First Sunday of Advent: Hope and Expectation
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined... For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder:… more >>
The last in my curious quartet of holy men in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection is Roch, a 14th century saint who is patron of invalids and the ailing, apothecaries and gravediggers, dogs and dog-lovers, the falsely accused and imprisoned, and bachelors. The son of the governor of the French city of Montpelier, Roch was marked from birth with…
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The saint known as Anthony of Padua was born as Fernando to a wealthy Portuguese family in Lisbon. He entered an Augustinian monastery at 15 but was drawn to the evangelical fervor of the Franciscan Order, where his intellectual prowess and rhetorical gifts soon made him one of the new movement’s most eloquent preachers and teachers. The personal sanctity…
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The story of Isidore the Farmer illustrates how saintliness has not so much to do with martyrdom or feats of self-denial but with honoring God in the workaday world with simple acts of devotion. Born around 1070 to devout Spanish peasants, Isidore lived out his life as a day laboror for a wealthy land-owner with an estate near Madrid.…
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The Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion tell of an unnamed Roman Centurion, so moved by what he witnessed at the foot of the Cross he proclaimed the dying Christ to be “the Son of God" (Matthew 27:54). Later apocryphal narratives identify him as Longinus, a name probably derived from the Greek word for the lance he thrust into the…
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Western Christians celebrate All Saints' Day on November 1st, honoring those holy men and women whose lives of devotion to God and service to humanity have earned them the special regard of the Church. Looking for images of the saints has not been a goal of mine in collecting contemporary sacred art with the exception, perhaps, of a few…
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My series on Czech artists in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection comes to an end this week with a tribute to the Prague-based artist, David Nebesky, who, I recently learned, died after a brief illness in the fall of 2022. Working under the pseudonym of David Wojkowicz, he produced new media prints on biblical themes like these digital images…
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Czech Graphic Artist Jan Hisek occupies a special niche among the East European small format printmakers in my collection. Entering his imaginative world is like voyaging twenty thousand leagues under the sea. In his monochrome mezzotints, biomorphic shapes gleam against backgrounds of black, resembling phosphorescent sea creatures lured out of sunless ocean trenches. They shape-shift into surreal scenes we…
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