It looks like a fifth grader drew it. Since Vatican II the Church, or rather the men misleading her, has traded beauty for ugliness and truth for error.
PopeWatch: Stunningly Bad
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
No, it doesn’t, but it is cartoon art, properly filed away in some drawer in the artists’ studio.
How I miss all those tacky “60’s” posters hanging all over my beautiful church. Now I’m subjected to traditional art everywhere I look and I’m no longer irritated while trying to pray.,
No, it doesn’t,
You might be right Art. I probably could have done better as a fifth grader.
I think the artist was extremely depressed when he painted this thing. It makes me depressed just looking at it.
The colours are very jarring and a terrible depiction of Christ- sullen and moody. Poor Art indeed. It reminds me of this:
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/abc11.com/amp/the-scream-painting-munch-edvard-inscription/10361056/
It could be worse … It could be felt.
“…written by an in-house artist.”
written by? Did the in-house artist write the prompts the MidJourney AI used to generate this? Or is the original tweet a bot?
The only thing that keeps me from thinking this was an AI generated image that used the prompts “Christ the good shepherd icon painting with late 80s anime colors in the style of Munch” is that the fingers aren’t horribly mangled.
Icons are not drawn, they are “written” after much prayer.
.
I suspect AI did not “write” this though; it isn’t good enough for that.
That is often how Eastern Christians describe how icons are made–not painted, but written. In a similar–but lesser way–to scripture, the icon depicts heavenly realities. Hence their creation is “written.” But it’s not an ironclad requirement. Eastern iconographers can be quite chill with “painted” or similar terms of artistic creation.
But the bottom line is that that item above is not an icon. While you don’t have to say that an icon is “written,” there are canons for iconography, and the “in-house artist” either hasn’t learned them or is ignoring them in a “look at me!” modern artist’s style. It suffers many of the same problems as the pontiff’s pervert friend’s icon parodies.
Giving the artist the benefit of charitable doubt, he/she has been badly mis-educated and is an amateur who needs to spend the necessary time learning to draw. That takes literal years.
There’s a sweat equity in becoming an artist–and this person hasn’t put it in. And people like Raho wouldn’t know the canons of ancient Christian art if they put him in a well-earned pillory.
I have several icons in casa McClarey. This attempt is an insult to the craft.
This is a comment on the homeless/ drug ridden/ mentally ills souls living on city streets to remind us that Christ is with us in many forms.
As art not my cup of tea.
Then it’s really not an icon. Icons depict transfigured humanity, the transformative Triune light that shines via redemption.
Saint Mary of Egypt was a prostitute. She is never depicted plying her trade. Even Christ crucified or those being martyred are shown in the light of God.
Given how much ugly we are force-fed through headlines, corruption, persecution, injustice, etc., on an hourly, refresh-the-page-for-more basis, depicting an ugly Christ doesn’t help.
Even Communists depicted the heroic and idealized, pointing (falsely) to a better future.
We assert that God Incarnate saves and transforms us, shining His light through our lives, and this is “stunning” example of how this is expressed?
“We all know the world is ugly–but so is our hapless Savior! Rejoice with us!”
Yeah, you’ll have overflow crowds of seekers with that.
[…] News & Commentary: St. Pope John Paul II On Eucharistic Revival – Padre Pio Press PopeWatch: Stunningly Bad – Donald R. McClarey, J.D., at The American Catholic Fatherhood & Raising a Catholic […]
It sure stunned the hell outta me . . .
If Rat Fink were a religion… And that’s the best thing I can think of to say about this abomination.
It..doesn’t look like an icon to me. It looks like a surrealistic caricature by Dali. Aiming to mock, not praise. Very sad.
It comes across as mockery to me.
Nevertheless, it is what it is…amateur hour BS.
It could be worse … It could be felt.
😂