Madonna and Child project underway

Here I have to share with you the beginnings of a project I have underway. This is my first venture into the subject of Madonna and Child. One of my ministries with LAMP is to go to a Good Counsel Home, a shelter for homeless pregnant women and their children. During my time spent there I have had some opportunities to draw the babies in the nursery. I figured that I could try to use some of these drawings of babies as references for the Christ Child as I develop a finished painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. I was drawn to one drawing of a baby to work with as I saw how I could integrate the image in with a figure depicting Mary. To do this I made a make-shift mannequin out of blankets and had one of my housemates and fellow missionaries, Lynn, modeling as the Blessed Virgin Mary, hold the bundle oriented in such a way that matched up with the orientation of the baby in the drawing and drew her.

Then I took my drawing and photocopied it, from there with charcoal I drew in the image of the baby over top of the copy- bringing the two figures together. I sought to bring them together in a way that was natural and organic. I also used my artistic license to lengthen the hair on the figure of Mary. So at this point I had a drawing to work off of to make a painting.

My next step in forwarding this project, which I did today, was to practice painting off of one of my drawings as a reference- a technique I haven't really worked with before. I started making a paint study based off the image of the baby I'm working with in this project. Today I just made the first layer in burnt sienna. Next time I work on this I'll work over this first layer to build up a painted image.

As I delve into making sacred art, or art with explicitly religious imagery, I am seeking to integrate in my love of drawing people from life and capturing a likeness to my model. Also, I'm trying to educate myself in what would be a good balance between creating an image accurate to the model and subtle abstraction/ idealization of the image I'm developing. One theme I feel drawn to as I begin to make sacred art, a theme which has carried over from my previous work, is having different layers of meaning in my works of art. What I mean by this in this piece would be that this is an image of Lynn, my model, and the baby I drew and it is also an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Christ Child- and these two dimensions interpenetrate and inform each other. I see every woman as having an inherent link to Mary the "New Eve" and true model of authentic womanhood. As Mary, by her feminine gift, opened herself to receive within herself and bear forth divine life- in the flesh, all women have a call to receive and bring forth life- whether that life be physical or spiritual. The subject of Madonna and Child is an exploration of the mystery of motherhood. Lynn, my model in this piece, comes with me to Good Counsel and has a role of being -if not a physical mother- a spiritual mother to these children in her time spent with them and through her prayers. So she is particularly well suited for this subject. In this way is this painting an image of Lynn and the Good Counsel baby while at the same time being an image of Mary and the infant Jesus.

A few recent drawings.

Here are a few recent drawings of mine. I have others I'd like to put on but at least this is something seeing how I haven't posted anything in months and months. I apologize for the poor image quality...but at least now I've found that I have access to a scanner, if only for a pretty small window of time once a week--so hopefully I'll be able to get the blog back up and running a bit. I've been wanting to experiment with producing art with more explicitly religious themes (which I guess you would call sacred art).  I think the most natural way for me to delve into this would to work on making some Madonna and Child images. As a missionary, one place I visit during the week is a Good Counsel home, which is a home for homeless pregnant women and their young children. I've taken my time spent with the babies in the nursery there as an opportunity to draw them and become more familiar with their forms. Before visiting the Good Counsel home, I had not had such an environment where I'm regularly exposed to babies that I am able to draw. So, in my drawing these children, I have been able to accumulate some potential sources to work from in depicting the Christ child. Also, it helps that I am currently living with three other missionaries who are willing to model for me, posing as Our Lady.

 

 Perhaps the next thing I could scan in and get up on the blog is my first stab at integrating the image of a child taken from the drawings I have done at Good Counsel with one of my housemates modeling for me as the Blessed Virgin. I'll plan on writing about my process more when I have the actual relevant images up...but I feel I was able to get a natural and organic looking image from which I could potentially develop some studies and more finished paintings of the Madonna and Child. The image below I also see as potentially being something I could work off of, if I were to develop it by having Lynn, my housemate, who is depicted here model for me, replicating this pose. What is nice about this image is that it shows how the two figures connect, meaning that I could develop natural and convincing works-- where the figure of the mother and of the child are well integrated-- that are more finished based off of it.

 

We female missionaries have recently moved to a new place in the Bronx. In our new building there has a room in the basement where I have been able to set up an art studio. As of this past week it is ready to go, so I can start painting at any time. My first projects will be making studies where I experiment with making paintings from drawings. I haven't really done this, making paintings from my drawings, but it would definitely open up a lot of doors for me artistically-- making sacred art would be actually accessible to me through such a process, because I could work from and bring together images of people that I have drawn.  This is handy because it takes a lot less time and is more accessible to make a drawing of a person than to paint them.  At this point in time I wouldn't be able to feasibly paint a baby from life for instance  (I can't just rent out a baby to take to my studio to paint!), but drawing them is something I am able to do.  A Catholic painter I have met since being in New York, Ken Woo, encouraged me to explore making paintings using my drawings. When you think of it, this is an old technique used by artists. Renaissance painters focused a lot on developing a drawing before starting to paint from it. I have more I'd like to write about this. Perhaps once I actually start giving it a go I'll post on the topic.

Update from the Bronx!

Just to update my readers on what I've been up to...I've become a missionary with LAMP Ministries. I'm committed for a year but if I/ we discern that I'm called to stay longer I could- you commit a year at a time. LAMP Ministries serves the materially poor in the NYC area, with a focus on evangelization.

I am very blessed for God to have been brought me here, it's good to see God providing for me seeing as how this past year I really didn't know what I was going to be doing after college. I came across LAMP in my research toward the very end of this past school year. I think God sort of likes to not let me know exactly what is going on until I really need to know in order to keep me dependent on Him. I've been reflecting on God's love for the poor before coming here and as I've been here...and I've come to somewhat of a better understanding of it. God is drawn toward the poor because they naturally tend to be more aware of their own need. We are all poor before God; we are all totally dependent on Him for all we have and all we are. It is to those who are aware of their need- those who are humble-those who are under no illusion that they have it all together by their own power- who are able to receive God. I'll write more about this later I'm sure but I just wanted to mention it here to tie it into an increased awareness I've been gaining of my own poverty and my dependence on God. In my poverty I don't understand exactly where my life is going or where God is taking me, which forces me to hold on tight and trust that he knows my needs better than even I do and desires to provide for me all I need. Even when I think back to where Christ revealed Himself to me in a deeper way, it was when I was broken down and deeply conscious of my own need for love, and longing for this love- that I found Christ providing His very self to satisfy my need. And then during times when I was at my weakest- when I was most conscious of my poverty and need, it was then that Christ most tangibly became my strength. A big thing with LAMP is being with the poor, in realizing that we too, though we are not materially poor, are all poor before the LORD. It is this posture of being with that helps us to relate to the materially poor as our brothers and sisters.

I'm enjoying being in New York City. The female missionaries I live with and myself were invited over for dinner last night at our pastor's rectory. Father is from Nigeria and I asked him how he ended up in New York. He got into it and was explaining how he wanted to come to New York City because "that's where all the action is!"

Please pray for me as I continue to get settled into this phase of my life.

Pope Benedict on God & Art

This was posted today on youtube:

Sister Maximilian Marie Garretson on Authentic Catholic Womanhood

Holiness= being your integral self.

As I have been discerning I feel God has been trying to communicate to me that what He desires is for me to be true to who I am. Sounds simple enough, right? But in reality it has been quite a challenge...and He's still breaking me down and planting a desire within my heart to be possessed by Him entirely. Holiness will happen when I let my desire for intimacy with Christ trump my desire to be in control. Controlling and manipulating God doesn't work, so why try? But part of me is still stubbornly trying to control, part of me is holding back from surrendering entirely to Him. Part of me doesn't trust God, part of me doesn't trust that His will for my life will satisfy my desires. I pray that God will win me over more and more and reveal to me more deeply how He is worthy of trust, that He is after all "for" me.

Danielle Rose is beautiful. This song really communicates the wisdom she has aquired, surely through her own wrestling with God, that holiness- intimacy with God- is about being fully alive in your own skin.

Marians of the Immaculate on the MoEs

Follow this link to read an article about the Missionaries of the Eucharist posted on the website of the Marians of the Immaculate. The Marians of the Immaculate promote the Divine Mercy message and devotion. It was a highlight of our walk to visit them at the Divine Mercy shrine in Stockbridge, MA.