Last week I wrote a post about music, one of the fine arts. This week my focus is art.

A Special Painting

Art on the wall of my apartment needed to be shifted since my office things are being relocated. This particular piece has an interesting history. Taking a course at the Cleveland Diocesan Seminary, I learned that a priest living there who was an artist gave the residents his paintings for their rooms. At the time, Sr. Megan Dull, an artist, was my suitemate at Notre Dame College. When I told her what the priest artist did, she invited me to her studio to select one of her paintings for my room.

This is the painting I’ve had hanging in the various convents where I lived. The piece came about somewhat by accident. Sister explained that as she painted a picture on an easel, her paintbrush would collect blobs of paint. She would clean them off by brushing them onto a blank canvas next to the one she was working on. When the project was finished, she took her brush and swirled around the blobs on that extra canvas, creating the painting I have.  I love its colors and movement.

Art in My Life

I grew up with art: fingerpainting, oil painting by number kits, coloring books using Crayola crayons (beginning with 8 colors and graduating to 64), and a box of blackline flowers to color. In the fifth grade, our teacher stole time from other subjects to have us create large murals for the big bulletin boards in the halls. These were done in crayon, pressing hard.

When I was in the eighth grade, for Halloween the businesses on Superior Avenue held a contest. Students from neighboring schools were invited to paint a Halloween scene on their windows. My two friends and I painted a fantastic one on the large bank window. Although a judge during a break assured us that ours would be a winner, sadly, it wasn’t. But what fun!

As a grade school teacher, I loved teaching art. Sister Claudette, a master teacher, gave me a slew of ideas for projects that I used with first, third, and eighth grade children. Some of these I later included in my book Jumbo Book of Art Ideas. For that book I asked the Sisters to provide samples of the various art activities. These appear in color in my book. Here are two pages from it:

I’ve done artwork for some of my books. Our Sister Marisa Lilley paints as her full-time ministry. You can see her beautiful work on her blog: https://gracetopaint.org/

She painted St. Peter’s wife for the cover of my book The Fisherman’s Wife: St. Peter’s Spouse:

Famous Artwork

Museums are fascinating places. I love browsing in Cleveland’s Art Museum and soaking in the masterpieces displayed there. On the Internet I can find ones not in its collection.

Who doesn’t love Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”?

Who isn’t moved by Salvador Dali’s crucifixion?

Mary Cassatt’s “Child’s Bath”?

Claude Monet ‘s “Water Lilies?”

To be honest, I don’t understand most of modern art. I prefer realistic art like Norman Rockwell’s.

Art and the Gospel

I think I mentioned this before, but every day a priest emails a piece of art related to the day’s Gospel along with a reflection on both. You can subscribe for this at https://christian.art/

You and Art

Today adult coloring books are popular. You might work in one if you don’t already. Did you know that coloring is calming, reduces stress, aids in sleeping, sharpens the brain, improves motor skills, and provides a meditative experience? It’s worth trying.

You might even register for an art class somewhere.

Or watch a YouTube video teaching art. There are dozens of them. Here is one:

• What is your favorite piece of art, a painting, sculpture, photograph?

• Do you have art hanging or standing in your home? If so, what is it?

• What would you title Sr. Megan’s painting? Why?