Sacrum et Decorum (Nov 2024)
Notes on my artistic journey
Abstract
When I look back, I recognise that there has been a will other than mine that has been guiding me towards and along the path of artistic creation. As a believer, I identify this will with divine Providence, which opens the doors through which I must pass. Thus, I acknowledge in my artistic work a vocation, a call to which I must respond, and I find myself in the need to put the talents I have received at the service of this special mission. Along my journey, I have encountered various texts that have helped me understand what this vocation consists of, among them two have deeply touched me, Rodin's Artistic Testament and Saint John Paul II's Letter to Artists. Thanks to them, I have discovered that art can be a good means to understand reality and make it understood, or that it can be a suitable means to praise and give thanks to God for all the blessings He gives us. Beauty plays a leading role in all of this. Its relationship with truth particularly interests me because it serves me as a guide in my creations. As Rodin has taught me, I seek above all that my works reveal the true character that lies beneath the forms, since when we find truth, inevitably we find beauty as well. To achieve this, I use both painting and sculpture, working with very specific materials that I try to shape. Material reality makes physical what is not, art has the ability to make the invisible visible, I consider it to have an almost sacramental dimension and therefore the materials and the way of using them are of great importance. I highly value technique, which I try to master in order to express myself with true freedom. Every work of art can be an open window to transcendence, but sacred art destined for liturgy or devotion must strive to achieve this. To do this, I believe it is good to draw from the masters of the past, to maintain continuity in the use of symbolism and iconography, and I see a certain degree of figuration is necessary to make the biblical characters and scenes recognisable and thus be a catechetical vehicle. All this does not equate to imitating styles of the past since there is room for each artist to express themselves according to their own personality and for the result to be a product of their time.
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