The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is not just a magnificent inert building; it is also a place where the Holy Spirit moves the faithful to experience human emotions as varied as hope, grief, consolation, joy, forgiveness or peace.
The artwork commissioned for the Cathedral plays a powerful role in expressing the movement of the Spirit in our times.
This September the Cathedral turns five years old, and the Cathedral Fine Arts Committee has invited the original artists to contribute to a new exhibit, "Looking Back/Moving Forward." The artists reflect on what the last five years has meant to them and their art through the show which opens Sept. 8 and runs through Jan. 4 in the Cathedral Chapels.
Every original Cathedral artist has contributed to this new art exhibit, including Lita Albuquerque, Regula and Douglas Campbell, Johnny Bear Contreras, Max DeMoss, Lalo Garcia, Robert Graham, Hakob Jambazian, Marirose Jelicich, The Judson Studios, Frank Martinez, John Nava, M.L. Snowden, John August Swanson, Simon Toparovsky and Jefferson Tortorelli.
Following are some of their reflections:
'Energy and emotion'
Five years ago Lalo Garcia created the shrine in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Cathedral Plaza as well as the mural of Our Lady which can be seen by drivers on the 101 Freeway.
The experience of working on the Cathedral transformed his approach to art, the artist told The Tidings.
"The line in my work today was definitely influence by the architecture of the Cathedral," said Garcia. "It really transformed me completely to the simplicity of this kind of a beauty. I've been going away from all the detail and all the color of Mexican culture which portrays all this energy. Now I'm trying to keep the same energy and the same emotion through minimal lines."
For the exhibit, Garcia is presenting "Into Your Hands I Commend My Spirit," a striking painting of the moment when Jesus dies and releases his spirit back to God.
"My intention is to offer something that is ours, fresh, created by a contemporary artist to a contemporary community," said Garcia. "I'm depicting themes that have been with us for 2,000 years in my own way, the way I feel them."
Garcia hopes that viewers "create an inner dialogue within themselves to refresh their own faith, their own devotion.
"Sooner or later we are going to come to that moment. It's going to be our last breath," reflected Garcia. "We're not really saying goodbye, because then the resurrection comes. But it is a moment when we say to God 'Here is my spirit. You gave it to me. Now it's in your hands again.'"
Spiritual consolation
For the Cathedral, artist Frank Martinez created a mural of early California history in the north ambulatory area. His contribution to the new exhibit is "Ayer y Hoy - Yesterday and Today" an autobiographical portrait featuring a young Martinez in the heat of World War II as well as an elderly Martinez grieving death's knock for a loved one today.
The painting, an artistic meditation on life and death, captures a moment in time when the young 19-year-old medic serving U.S. forces in France came upon a centuries old French church. "What attracted me to it was part of a stained glass window partially hanging. The reds and blues were still embedded in that window," recalled Martinez.
As he climbed the steps to the church, something remarkable stirred within him; the words that formed on his lips were "I am home." Tears streamed down the face of this young man who had been tending to wounded and dying solders.
"I never had experienced a feeling of love and every emotion the human being is able to put together in a lump sum," said Martinez. Deeply moved by such a profound and intimate experience of the Spirit, Martinez chose not to reveal it --- until now.
When he received the invitation to contribute to the new exhibit, "I said to myself, well, now this is the time to let it out. It's been very, very hard to do. How can I put on canvas what I have kept bottled up all this time?"
Wanting to link his past to the present, the painting also features 83-year-old Martinez today. The candle in his hands represents the light of his son who died earlier this year. The shoes on the old man are left unfinished. The reason? "I'm not dead yet," quipped Martinez, adding that the day he knows he's dying is the day he can finish the shoes.
Song of life
Johnny Bear Contreras originally created "Spirit of the Earth" Native American Memorial located on the north side of the Plaza.
A member of the San Pascual Indian Reservation in north San Diego County, Contreras said he grew up with the influences of Catholicism and the traditional ways of the Kumeyaay Nation. Through his work for the Cathedral he was encouraged to "start considering perspective. Not just the art, but where I've been and what I'm doing. I had to stand back and dig deep. What is it I'm trying to invoke in my pieces? What is it that I'm charged with?"
For Contreras, the answer is two-fold: bringing respect and recognition to Native people, and continuing his journey as an artist.
Following the Cathedral project, Contreras participated in a fellowship with the Smithsonian, after which he said he began "understanding depths of my spirituality."
For the new exhibit, Contreras is presenting "Past to Present, Kumeyaay Bird Singers" a bronze sculpture of three figures representing three generations of Native men. While their regalia and clothing are different on each man to reflect his particular time period, the three are unified by the gourd each one shakes, their mouths open in song.
The movement conveyed in the sculpture expresses energy and festivity. Contreras said he tried to capture a singular moment --- "the pinnacle of celebration."
"All cultures have a certain rhythm in their regalia, colors and things that set us apart," he said. "It's a rhythm that comes from the Creator, God." |