Exquisite artwork can be seen in
basilicas around the world, and its ability to bring people closer to God has
been expounded upon in church documents new and old. But to better understand good
art, painter Andrew de Sa wanted less theory and more practical tips. “I wanted
to demystify the creative process,” he said.
As creative director of the Carl Schmitt
Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to furthering the legacy of the 20th-century
Catholic artist, de Sa decided to organize an Oct. 27 seminar. “Defining the
Role of the Catholic Artist Today: A Symposium” will showcase a panel of
talented Catholic creators as well as a group of scholars. The event is co-hosted
by the diocesan Office of Catechetics.
“We’re talking to them and they’re
taking to us not as beret-wearing, cigarette-smoking, brilliant people, but
coming in as craftsmen,” said de Sa. “They’re each bringing a piece of work
that they’ve been working on and will give us an inside view into that.”
Panelists include Henry Wingate, a
painter and parishioner of St. John the Baptist Church in Front Royal; Will
Seath of McCrery Architects in Washington; Jaqueline Leary-Warsaw of the Rome
School at The Catholic University of America in Washington; Soren Johnson,
associate director of catechetics; and Father William P. Saunders, pastor of
Our Lady of Hope Church in Potomac Falls, episcopal vicar for faith formation
and director of the Office of Catechetics.
De Sa, who also will speak, grew up in
Herndon attending St. Catherine of Siena Church in Great Falls. He considered
pursuing engineering before deciding to paint. A coffee table book full of Carl
Schmitt’s art and writings inspired de Sa to reach out to Schmitt’s son. Now, de
Sa works at the foundation as creative director and artist in residence. Part
of de Sa’s vison for the lifestyle of a Catholic artist is informed by Schmitt’s
work.
Schmitt was born in 1889 and lived a
simple life in Connecticut with his wife and their 10 children. “He talks about
the three artistic virtues being poverty, humility and purity, which — I know a
lot of painters, and that’s generally not the consensus,” said de Sa with a
laugh. “Informed by his faith, he decided that he wanted to live for a
different set of ideals than the ones that were presented to him. He lived
these huge concepts in a quiet way.”
Schmitt believed that his role as an
artist was to be more prophet than reformer. “As an artist, you’re called to
retreat from societal life and to really pursue your imagination — the thing
that allows us to perceive reality more fully,” de Sa said.
As a Catholic, Schmitt believed living a
holy life was more important than being a good artist, but that the virtues he
cultivated, such as humility, benefited his work. “A humble disposition would
be having the humility to see things as they are. Every time you look at
something and try to imitate it, you’re always drawing from previous conceptions
and so you’re already bringing so much noise to the table,” said de Sa. “To see
something as it actually is is incredibly difficult, and it takes incredible
humility to turn down some of the noise, some of the intellect.”
Schmitt also wrote about the creative
process as a ritual. “He likened it to the liturgy,” said de Sa. “You just have
to start. Sometimes the wind comes, the inspiration, the Holy Spirit, but it’s
not that you’re summoning it — you’re making yourself available.”
De Sa hopes the panel will share their
own art philosophies and reignite laypeople and priests with a love of good art.
“The Catholic Church is the steward of this great classical tradition and if we
aren’t pushing it forward, no one is,” said de Sa. “I don’t see any of these artists
as replicators. They’re very much about creating new things. They’re true
progressives — they stand on tradition and they bring us from there.”
