Category: Visual Arts

  • The Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi Remains Italian Treasure

    The Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi Remains Italian Treasure

    The Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, or the  Basilica di San Francesco, remains an Italian treasure, for many obvious reasons. As building of the great basilica commenced in 1228, following the death of the mysterious figure St. Francis said to have been marked by the gruesome stigmata, did anyone imagine the flocks of international…

  • Chantal Kreviazuk’s “Into Me”: A Call to Lasting Love Despite Human Fragility

    Chantal Kreviazuk’s “Into Me”: A Call to Lasting Love Despite Human Fragility

    Chantal Kreviazuk’s song “Into Me” is a beautiful call and challenge to fight for and believe in lasting love, despite the ever-present reality of human fragility.   This call is revealed through Kreviazuk’s quintessential driving piano base and expressive vocals, as well as the music video directed by Michael Maxxis and featuring an exquisite performance…

  • El Tonto Por Cristo: A Distinctly Strange, Mystical Film

    El Tonto Por Cristo: A Distinctly Strange, Mystical Film

    A remarkable independent film, El Tonto Por Cristo, was released this past year. The film’s name translates from the Spanish into the English “A Fool for Christ,” referencing the long-standing Eastern Christian spiritual tradition of the “Holy Fool.”   Presented completely in black and white by filmmaker Josh David Jordan, El Tonto Pro Cristo features…

  • Terrence Keller Paintings: Beauty Over Nihilism in Abstract Formalism

    Terrence Keller Paintings: Beauty Over Nihilism in Abstract Formalism

    Terrence Keller, the great man and painter, was a Canadian national treasure with international reach. Well before his death in 2014, he had become a renowned contributor to the formalist abstract art movement, with exhibitions in many museums, international buyers, and entries in various definitive texts on formalism and even the Canadian Encyclopedia. He was…

  • Michaelangelo’s Pieta: The Permanence of a Sculpture’s Beauty 

    Michaelangelo’s Pieta: The Permanence of a Sculpture’s Beauty 

    There are few sculptures as stunning as Michelangelo’s Pieta, where the Blessed Virgin Mary holds her Divine Son in her arms, post-crucifixion. All I remember was being utterly arrested when I walked into St. Peter’s Basilica and had time to gaze at it, tilting my head in wonder at the encounter. I was so mesmerized…