New society to unite creators, lovers of Catholic art

St. Cecilia (above) is among the 20 saintly portraits recently installed inside children’s cabins at Camp Abbey. The portrait series, by northshore-based artist Jaclyn Warren, came together though connections forged by the St. Louis IX Art Society, a new archdiocesan organization that will bring together the makers and appreciators of Catholic art. (Photos by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald; and courtesy of Camp Abbey and Jaclyn Warren)

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

Rather than depicting St. Joseph in his usual guise as an elderly man with a slender frame, artist Jaclyn Warren painted him in his prime – with a thick mane of hair, rosy cheeks and the heavily muscled arms of a working carpenter.

Warren’s robust St. Joseph, his lips pursed in concentration, labors over the task at hand: shaving down a plank of wood in his workshop. A wall of white daylilies and a golden halo telegraph his holiness.

“I think (artists) historically depicted St. Joseph as an old man to show his wisdom,” said Warren, a professional illustrator based in Covington. “I wanted to depict him as ‘St. Joseph the Worker,’ because I wanted the boys to see themselves in these saints. I picture him as being a really strong guy.”
The vibrant acrylic portrait of Jesus’ foster father is part of a riveting new series of 20 paintings of saints and biblical figures Warren created for installation inside Camp Abbey’s cabins, which are named for male saints during the boys’ camp in June and for female saints during girls’ camp in July.

In addition to the painting of St. Joseph, portraits of Old Testament heroes Noah, Jonah, King David and Samson, as well as Sts. Benedict, Peter, Paul, Patrick and Martin of Tours, now have a place of honor inside their respective namesake-cabins.

The girls’ cabins boast paintings of female honorees Venerable Henriette Delille and Sts. Bernadette, Gianna Molla, Frances Cabrini, Cecilia, Angela Merici, Jacinta, Scholastica, Katharine Drexel and Teresa of Avila.

Warren, who painted the holy figures onto 15-by-15-inch squares of wood donated by St. Joseph Abbey Woodworks, used a rainbow of saturated colors to complete the saintly roll call, taking care to make each painting as child-friendly as possible, while not making them cartoonish. For example, the artist painted St. Peter in profile, rather than head-on.

“I wanted to depict St. Peter at the moment he receives the call (from Jesus),” Warren explained. “He’s just hauled in his fish, and Jesus is saying, ‘Hey! If you want to be a fisher of men, follow me!’”

Warren’s other favorites include Venerable Henriette, whom Warren was “intimidated” to paint because of her deep love for the New Orleans-born founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family, and her technicolor close-up of a relieved Noah.

“I think it communicates joy and hope because of the rainbow and the dove returning, bringing that message that the waters are receding,” Warren said.

Art strikes human chord

The 20 saintly portraits, crafted by the local artist, are the initial fruits of the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ newly established St. Louis IX Art Society, a Catholic art apostolate that aims to build a community based on a common love for sacred art while cultivating relationships between Catholic artists and local faithful.

The first-of-its kind ministry, co-founded by Jordan Haddad, associate professor of dogmatic theology at Notre Dame Seminary, and Metairie-based painter Abigail Reller, is open to Catholic artists, art patrons and art lovers.

“Art can teach in a way that’s much more profound, deep and impactful than merely teaching someone about the faith,” said Haddad, who also directs the seminary’s lay ministry and lay formation programs. “Confronting someone with a beautiful image that pierces their heart and strikes them to the core communicates to them in a deep way that something is true here; there is something really good and significant about this (work of art); it calls me out of myself.”

Since being approved as a Catholic organization by Archbishop Gregory Aymond last March, the new endeavor has quietly assembled a core group of six “Society Artists” to help lead it: co-founder Reller, Warren (creator of the Camp Abbey portraits), Blair Barlow, Andrew Coleman, Norman Fauchaux and Jacob Zumo. Jesuit Father John Brown, president of Jesuit High School and himself a painter of religious art, will serve as the apostolate’s first chaplain.

Formal launch on Sept. 26

The public is invited to the society’s inaugural event – a fall showcase of the artists’ work, set for Sept. 26 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Notre Dame Seminary’s Schulte Auditorium, 2901 South Carrollton Ave. in New Orleans. The event, co-sponsored by the seminary, will include a short presentation on the exhibit’s theological underpinnings, followed by a Q&A with the artists. The event is free, but small goodwill donations will be accepted at the door.

“This will be an opportunity for the local church to come in and see the beautiful Catholic art being created within our own local archdiocese, so that not only can our artists have more exposure and have more work, but establish those relationships between the community and the artists themselves,” Haddad said.

Banter leads to action
 
The seeds of the St. Louis IX Art Society were sown last year, when Haddad made a comment on social media about the universal beauty of a piece of music and noted, “Don’t even get me started on art!”

Haddad’s observation on the soul-lifting power of the arts resonated with Reller, a friend of Haddad’s since their years as members of LSU’s on-campus Catholic parish of Christ the King.

“The conversation led to ‘there really needs to be some kind of community centered on Catholic art’ – because there’s such a richness in it and concentration of it here in south Louisiana – but people don’t really know about it. There’s no connector,” Reller said.

In her nine years of teaching religion at the Academy of the Sacred Heart, St. Catherine of Siena and two Catholic schools in Mississippi, Reller had seen what a powerful evangelization and catechetical tool art could be, especially among her pre-readers. For example, when teaching her little ones about the parable of the Prodigal Son, Reller would show them examples of fatherly love culled from “everything from African folk art, to fancy paintings from a cathedral, to a cartoon of the Prodigal Son – and they ‘got it!’”

Bringing the saints to life

The society was still in its planning stages when Camp Abbey’s director, Billy O’Regan, mentioned to Haddad – his friend and archdiocesan colleague – that he was looking for someone to create 20 paintings of Camp Abbey’s “cabin saints” in time for the 2021 summer program. Haddad put O’Regan in touch with Warren, an Our Lady of the Lake parishioner whose illustrations Haddad had seen in the 2020 book “Brilliant: 25 Catholic Scientists, Mathematicians and Supersmart People,” written by David Michael Warren, the artist’s husband.

Jaclyn Warren accepted the commission, completing the Camp Abbey portraits in just two months, often while holding her newborn daughter in a baby sling.

“It’s one more piece in underscoring the Catholic identity of the camp and communicating the lives of these saints and biblical figures to our campers,” said O’Regan, pointing to ways Warren’s paintbrush opens up the conversation on each saint: St. Gianna Molla’s physician’s coat; the raven who saved St. Benedict’s life; crosiers held by Sts. Benedict, Patrick and Scholastica; St. Jacinta’s rosary and Portuguese veil; St. Martin of Tours, cutting off his cloak to give to a beggar whom he later learns is Jesus.

“They’re not just paintings of ‘a pretty lady with a halo’ or ‘a guy with a beard,’” O’Regan said. “They were done so beautifully and in a way that does not talk down to the audience, but really meets them right where they’re at. They offer a lot of rich symbolism that can be mined by our staff members.”

Exhibits, Masses planned

The society was named for St. Louis IX, King of France, the patron saint of the Archdiocese of New Orleans and a patron of the arts himself in the 13th century. After its official launch on Sept. 26, the organization hopes to follow up with a spring showcase and a “Silver Mass” for Catholic artists, akin to other “color” Masses celebrated annually for various livelihoods. The fledgling community of artists and appreciators of Catholic art also wants to organize regular Masses in which members can gather at an architecturally significant church, enjoy a talk on the church’s history and socialize afterward.
 
Events will be open to “anyone who has an appreciation and a love for beautiful Catholic art – anything from abstract art and its transcendent experience of beauty, to traditional art forms that you might find in a church like St. Patrick’s,” Reller said.

“One of the goals of the society is to create that communal awareness of our local artists, so that their art can bless people’s homes locally,” Haddad said, noting that local hunger for beautiful Catholic art was evident in last spring’s art contest themed around the Year of the Eucharist and St. Joseph, which drew more than 300 submissions from both children and adults.

The society’s “ripple effect” is already being felt at Camp Abbey, where O’Regan is thinking ahead to next summer. He said Warren’s paintings have been so well received, he plans on reprinting the images onto holy cards to give to camp families as they drop off their children – as a reminder that their children are under saintly protection.

Campers Katherine Luscy and Tatum Shaffer, both soon-to-be freshmen at Mount Carmel Academy, were thrilled that their cabin’s namesake this summer, by sheer coincidence, was St. Teresa of Avila, founder of the Carmelite order of religious sisters that established their high school.

“I love the brush strokes on it; it really gets the detail,” said Luscy, admiring Warren’s rendering of St. Teresa of Avila, which depicts the Doctor of the Church, quill pen in hand, at the moment her heart is symbolically “pierced” by an arrow carried by the dove of the Holy Spirit.

“When I come here I feel safe,” Luscy said. “I can talk about anything (and) I’m not afraid to speak of my religion or sing in church. I feel at home.”

Shaffer said the portrait of St. Teresa of Avila, whose tunic inspired the color of Mount Carmel’s devotional scapular, makes her feel at home while at camp.

“Brown’s a really special color at Mount Carmel, so it really just bonds us with the saint,” Shaffer said. “When you come (to Camp Abbey), you feel like you’re part of a community and a family. Being with God the whole time just makes it even better.”

For more information on The St. Louis IX Art Society, email Jordan Haddad at [email protected]. The paintings at Camp Abbey are among the improvements to the camp’s physical plant being funded through a grant from the Catholic Women’s Giving Circle.

To view a photo gallery of all 20 saintly portraits (and the identities of each subject), visit https://clarionherald.org/photoalbums/portraits-of-saints-at-camp-abbey. Prints of each can be ordered at www.jaclynwarren.com.
 
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