Newspaper Page Text
Supplement to The Georgia Bulletin, October 22, 1987
□ Faith Toda
A supplement to Catholic newspapers published by
NATIONAL CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
1312 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.
with grant assistance from
The Catholic Church
EXTENSION Society
35 East Wadser Dr., Chicago, Illinois 60601
All contents copyright© 1987 by NC News Service.
By Monica Clark
NC News Service
A
nton Fuetsch is at work
in his studio in Berke
ley, Calif., carving a life-
size statue of the ascend
ing Christ. The project
for a local Catholic church is more
than a business commission. It is
the Austrian native’s medium for
communicating faith.
“When people enter the church,
I want them to immediately recall
the story of Christ and how in the
end the victory of inner and eter
nal peace can be attained,” he said.
“Christ is our example of how
hardship shouldn’t deter us.”
The 44-year-old Catholic artist is
carrying on a three-generation
woodcarving tradition. He aims for
the “visual image of eternal truth.”
The eyes convey that best, he said,
because they can express “inner
sureness, quietness, a knowledge”
that there is a continuation from
this life to the next.
Sculptures, like living figures, are
three-dimensional, Fuetsch stressed.
He learned to carve life’s three-
dimensional quality into his works
from his uncle whose works stand
in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vien
na, Austria. In his own sculptures,
Fuetsch tries to find a way to
reveal the interior spiritual qualities
of a person through the physical
exterior.
□ □ □
The kind of environment people
encounter when they enter a
church is also the concern of artist
Patricia Walsh, who in the past 10
years has helped six U.S. Catholic
congregations with major interior
church renovations.
A fine arts professor at California
College of Arts and Crafts in
Oakland, Ms. Walsh strives for “a
feeling of rightness that is con
ducive to meditation, that makes
people want to be in the room. ”
Such “rightness” comes from at
tention to detail, to the interplay of
colors, the lines of the altar and
lectern, the design of the tabernacle
door, the use of shapes to fill a
large sanctuary space. She measures
that sense of rightness intuitively,
knowing it is somehow connected
to her own spiritual and moral
values.
“I have to rely on my own
openness and aliveness, my will
ingness to approach my work
always with a fresh eye,” Ms.
Walsh said.
She emphasized that when atten
tion is paid to all components of
the environment in which the
The
artists
medium
For woodcarver Anton Fuetsch (pictured above), creating
o life-size statue of the ascending Christ for a local church is
more than just o business commission, reports Monica Clark.
It is the Austrian native’s medium for communicating faith. This
week, Faith Today’s writers explore the connections between
faith and art, and talk with contemporary church artists about
their work. Church art, they discover, isn't just art for art’s soke!
church’s worship occurs, a new
respect for the Christian life can
emerge among worshipers Even if
the space for worship is not 100
percent perfect in artistic terms,
“the time and effort put into it
supports the faith of the people
and reinforces the gospel message,”
she said.
□ □ □
Father Ronald Schmit, one of Ms
Walsh’s students, is acutely aware
that art and the design of a wor
ship space have a power to com
municate something to others. The
environment can reinforce the
themes of the liturgy and help to
create a caring community he
believes. The 30-year-old priest is
associate pastor of All Saints Parish
in Hayward, Calif.
He graduated from the seminary
after earning a degree in interior
architectural design He told of roll
ing up an ornate carpet in a chapel
sanctuary and main aisle during
Lent to reveal a bare white floor
that would better symbolize the
penitential nature of the season.
And one Easter Father Schmit
placed brightly colored upholstered
panels over the Stations of the
Cross to focus the congregation's
attention onto the message of the
resurrection.
Temporary changes of the wor
ship environment such as these can
help at special times to “shift the
emphasis away from secondary
symbols to the primary ones,” he
believes.
His criteria in making these tem
porary changes? Whether they help
focus the people’s attention on the
primary meaning of worship —
gathering together, proclaiming the
word and breaking the bread.
For Father Schmit, his work on
linoleum cuts of biblical scenes and
his involvement with matters of in
terior design are somewhat like
praying the rosary, in which the
repetition of the Hail Marys frees
the mind and heart for contem
plation.
“When I'm really into it, I have
a sense of complete connectedness
to the natural world and to God —
that we are in full communica
tion,” he said. “Art keeps me
physically tuned and in the process
1 become contemplative, present to
God.”
The priest is convinced that “in
art and in liturgy, something
greater than me takes over; the Ho
ly Spirit.”
(Ms. Clark is editor of The
Catholic Voice in Oakland, Calif.)