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Catholic University
Washington, DC 1964-66
During this period, as Staff Editor for NCE I spent most of my time in residence at the Catholic University in Washington, DC. There I maintained a modest studio and had a modest room with a resident dining hall for priests pretty much like the monastery. During this period my experience was not entirely different from life in the monastery where we had teaching and pastoral duties. I returned to the Monastery in 1966 and worked remotely with my Washington staff from St. Vincent. The mural I executed in the religious studies building on 7th Street reveals something the transformation in my spiritual life.
Click for a personal account of departure from cloister two years later.
Crayon, acrylic and gouache, 1966. Catholic University, Washington DC. Present disposition unknown.
Text from Ibsen.
Brand: The jaws of death encompass me.. God above! Does it all count for naught with Thee that man in anguish strives to be?
Voice: God is love.
I painted this mural on the stairwell wall of a residential building that the University adapted for temporary use. The Religious Studies department used it for temporary offices and I had use of a 2nd floor room as a private studio. During this period I painted several walls using spontaneous gestures with texts to reveal states of experience. The procedures, derived from my work in Paris, provide a glimpse on the spiritual experience that was present in my Washington years..
During this period I continued work on the New City series employing techniques that I had initiated in New York and continued using up through the summer of 1968. These "New City" works were optimistic and signs of a rewarding spiritual life that continued along side deep spiritual trabsformation.. The ambiguity that pushed and pulled in opposite directions during this period are present in the mural above as opposed to the "New City" works below. Both were highly valued as manifestations of my experience at that time.
The New City Grows,1965
36" by 36"
acrylic, crayon, gesso on wood.
St Vincent Archabbey Collection
The New City, ca 1966
(earth-blue version)
36" by 36"
acrylic, crayon, gesso on wood.
Saint Vincent Archabbey
The New City Series Technique. From 1963 to 1968, both in Washington and back at the Monastery, these paintings were created on wood panels. For me this echoed the tradition of the traditional; "Eikon" panel. The panels were an industrial grade 3/4" plywood prepared by first brushing the surface to raise the grain and remove less stable wood fiber. They were then primed with several layers of white gesso.
The broad color fields were subtle washes of color achieved by rubbing acrylic into the grain of the panel; the spontaneous gestures were achieved with crayon or heavy lead pencil markings. The rectangular shapes were achieved with heavy coats of impasto carefully and precisely panted on the panel in arrangements that were geometrically spaced and scaled in some form of continued proportion. in their relationship of one to the other. Rational relationships in scale, color and spacing were the rule for the geometric forms. The finished works attempt to bring visual opposites into a believable harmonious whole. For me, the resolution of opposites were signposts for the New City - signs of a more harmonious world, the promise of a "New City", the "Heavenly Place".
Interpretation: Click here for a statement on this New City series.
Washington Post: "Scholarly Priest at Home with the Beats" by G. Wolfe (1965)< Back: Monastic period menu | Main menu | Search | Contact | Copyright
