The Modern Mind in Art

Modern man is asked by the zeitgeist of the times to live life open-minded and accepting of multiple possible world views and perspectives. In today's pluralistic culture of the West, to believe that there is one correct view on life and morals is considered closed-minded. Relativism in the West opens our minds to multiple simultaneous and contradicting truths. Multiple perspectives on life and truth are valued even if contradicting. This type of mindset can be confusing, but confusion is the home of the modern mind. Instead of confusion one can call it possibility, potential, freedom. In this state though, our perspective on life is much like this painting by Picasso, The Poet. Its hard to know what we are looking at, but one is supposed to be ok with that and find the beauty in ambiguity. This is the mind of modern man, he doesn't know what we are or where we are going but isn't that kind of pretty in itself, just the weird wonder of it? Concrete meaning and definite truths are blurred and blended. What is truth? What is man? What is God? What is reality?

Cubism paints reality from multiple perspectives at once, after all one perspective can't be right. All perspectives at once are true even if this leads to no perspective. This type of painting can be a metaphor for the mental state of how reality appears to the modern man who is open to all-truths since no truth is absolutely true to everyone. Being open to all-truths, even contradictory truths is like having no truth.

Representational art traditionally has one viewpoint. Traditionally societies have had a majority viewpoint. Art tended to have meaning and represented real things and ideas. As in cubism, the modern liberal mind tends to shun a single narrative of truth unless that narrative is that there is no one truth. Ambiguity, open-mindedness, pluralism, "tolerance", is the ideal. I think that is why modern art is so ambiguous and hard to understand. Modern Western society thinks life should be hard to understand, at least a life with meaning. It tends to say that each person makes his or her own personal meaning and no one narrative encompasses all as true.

Then we have abstract expressionism. This type of art seems to promote the idea that meaning is not important in life, only self-expression and freedom to do whatever you feel. The need to communicate ideas and connect to others in a rational way is not important. What seems to be encouraged is the expression of the self at the expense of a shared experience with others with actual understood meaning. Can you think of any people in your life that live this way?











Am I reading to much into art and what its style promotes or can you see that values of a society materialized in the artworks it creates?

My Journey on the Coming Home Network Newsletter

The Coming Home Network featured my story on their June 2015 issue.  The Coming Home Network has been a tremendous resource of encouragement on this journey.

Finding the Vanishing Point: My Journey to the Catholic Church – Conversion Story of Enrique Crosby

A Pentecostal Art Aesthetic Fulfilled

I wrote in the past about my desire to develop and explore a Pentecostal art aesthetic, a form of principles that express the purpose and state of being of art created in a "Spirit-filled" way. What I meant by Pentecostal was that this art would have a supernatural quality capable of the miraculous and the revelatory, that the artist him/herself would intentionally in a mystical and prayerful way submit to the leadings of the Holy Spirit with the intent that he/she would become a conduit for God's work and that the resulting artwork would be imbued with a supernatural grace to touch the viewer.  Now that I'm Catholic, I believe the word I was looking for was that this art would be "Sacramental", a physical reality that conveys grace to us here on earth.

Looking at the world now through Catholic "goggles", I see that the artwork I was seeking to define is very Catholic. For example, the Catholic mind has accepted the history of religious art/icons that were created in grace by artist and that these icons in many places and times have played a part in supernatural occurrences and protection.

As a Pentecostal, I had been impressed when I heard a story of a woman in California associated with the Jesus Culture movement and Bill Johnson's Church in Redding, CA, who had been healed of blindness when she had walked past a painting created by a prayerful Charismatic. I wanted to see more of this physical creative art releasing the supernatural. I wanted to explore and define this phenomenon of art and the supernatural. This issue has long been a part of Catholic Church history. This is very much the historic Catholic understanding of the arts. Why was I trying to recreate the wheel as though it was a new phenomenon?

For one example of a supernatural work of grace being associated with an artwork, read about the Black Madonna of Czestochowa. There are many more examples of such occurrences, they may just not fit in with typical Protestant theology. A picture of Mary or a Saint releasing a miracle, well I would just have assumed it was demonic to lead the world into idolatry of the art object and away from true Protestant theology. One has to deal with the anti-Catholic mindset to see with clarity the beauty of grace working through art, or else one will overlook these historic occurrences as demonic and only look to the modern occurrences of miracles associated with art created by Protestants that fit Protestant theology, and like I was, will be left thinking this is a new phenomenon yet to be explored. 

A warning to the Charismatic artists, or Prophetic Artists as we used to call each other. Be careful in your journey to see grace work through physical artworks because you are moving into a theology of Sacraments and Sacramentals that is very close to a Catholic understanding of matter and grace. Protestants have tended historically to view an either/or, Grace vs. Matter conflict, and Catholics a Grace and Matter relationship of Grace perfecting matter. Pentecostals may believe that the Holy Spirit may work through anointing oil or a handkerchief that has been prayed over, but has to stretch their minds to believe in God working through a man made art object.

I look forward to exploring this topic more in depth and studying miracles associated with and around art objects.

What are stories of God supernaturally working through art that you have heard of?

Beautiful Churches

Here's a sketch I made after mass today.

It's a drawing of St. Mary's in Mexia, TX. 

Something cool about being Catholic is being able to travel the country and attend any Mass and know the reading for the day and the liturgy ahead of time. Each church has its charm and beauty, but the overall liturgy is the same. 

Here are some photos of parishes I visited for Mass.

St. Edward's in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

This sculpture of Purgatory was at St. Edward's in Little Rock. 

St. Andrew's in Roanoke, Virginia.

St. Catherine of Sienna in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

I still love my little Parish of Saint Mary's though. 

Oh, look at some of the saint statues at St. Catherine of Sienna's. 

St. Peter of Verona. 

Not a statue but a beautiful mosaic of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  

St. Louis de Montfort. 

St. Dominic who received the rosary. 

Comparing Protestant and Catholic Ideas

I wanted to share an informative blog of a woman who is trying to honesty investigate historic Christianity and the claims of the Catholic Church. She is trying to remain neutral since she has come to the point of realizing she doesn't feel Protestant anymore. I recommend reading her series.