Italian Summer '18
/Orvieto a small Italian town located on a plateau 1.5 hrs north of Rome and south of Florence.
I stumbled upon a Christian Philosophy and Theology School based in Toronto which offered a course in Theological Aesthetics that ran concurrently with an International Artist Residency.
Artists: graphic designers, painters, writers, philosophers, historians, film makers, dancers, deacons all gathered together for both residency and academic rigor.
Readings nightly from Aristotle to Calvin. We were all under the tutelage of the wonderfully knowledgeable Rebekah Smick, John Skillen , David Holt and Thomas McIntire.
This residency was unlike others I’ve participated in and it proved to be quite fruitful. I made my first Italian street art piece, played with light installations, and did some traditional drawing and painting all while in the confines of a 13th century convent basement.
All in all, I walked away from this experience with a broader knowledge of why images were initially made, how they were used in worship and the historical and philosophical ponderings of many societies regarding art as a theological tool.
The Holy Spirit was presented in many new forms this summer and I have a lot of work to do as a result.
Ciao.