NATIONALCATHOLICREPORTER JANUARY29-FEBRUARY11,2016 NCRonline.org

Deacons

Saint Sebastian, pigment print, by Lawrence Klimecki

By MENACHEM WECKER

When Friar John Sebastian, secretary and treasurer at the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America in Washington, D.C., commissioned Lawrence Klimecki to il-lustrate St. Sebastian in 2010, Klimecki knew he was going to do something different.

Classical artists have traditionally depicted the martyr tied to a tree, riddled by arrows. But when illustrating Pau-list Press 2012 childrens book S Is for Saints, Klimecki elected to portray the saints as they were before their can-onization.

So many times, you see saints dressed as priests, nuns, brothers or sisters, but they werent born as a priest or a monk. They had lives before they got to that point, said Klimecki, an artist and deacon at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Sacramento, Calif. I ap-proached St. Sebastian with the idea of giving some sense as to what Sebastian may have been like beyond the popu-lar notion of target practice for archers.

Sebastian, before the arrows pierced him, was a captain in Roman Emperor Diocletians army. Contrary to popu-lar belief perhaps perpetuated by paintings by El Gre-co, Peter Paul Rubens, Andrea Mantegna, Titian, Botticel-li and others the arrows didnt kill him. After archers, acting on the emperors orders, left Sebastian for dead, he was nursed back to health. He then reappeared before Di-ocletian, who ordered that he be beaten to death in Rome, circa 288.

Klimecki knew his painting would have arrows, but he didnt want them to be too pronounced. In his black-and-white work, he represents the saint clad in armor and a cape with a laurel wreath on his head, symbolizing victory, and a ceremonial sword and a ring on his left hand signify-ing his military rank. In the background, Deacons Marcus and Marcellianus, whose faith Sebastian encouraged lead-ing up to their martyrdom, appear in miniature.

Klimeckis greatest innovation comes in the halo, which is made up of some 50 arrows, all pointed toward the saints head. The halo suggests sanctity, but it can also be a space to use to put in some of the saints attributes, Klimecki said.

Its not the only time the painter has sought interesting things to do with the halo. A portrait of St. Kateri Tekak-witha, titled Lily of the Mohawks, shows the 17th-centu-ry saint, the first Native American to be canonized, with a halo of eagle feathers.

They have a lot of symbolic value to Native Americans, Klimecki said.

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The saint also carries a bouquet of lilies, and large circle in the back-ground, a sort of second halo, also con-tains lilies, which symbolize purity.

Klimeckis decision to zero in on the aspects that propelled saints along on their journey to sainthood may relate to his own unique journey. Although he grew up Catholic in the 1960s and 70s in Yuba City, Calif., he found the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council confusing.

Like many people of my genera-tion, I fell away from the church in my teenage and young adult years. It wasnt until later on in life that I came back to the church, he said.

After graduating from high school, Klimecki went to California State Uni-versity Maritime Academy in Vallejo, Calif., hoping to become a career deck officer in the merchant marine, per-haps on a cruise ship or oil tanker.

A medical condition sidelined him temporarily; when he recovered, he faced an important decision: return to the academy, given challenges at the time finding employment in the merchant marine, or follow his life-long passion of artmaking. He chose the latter.

For as long as he could remember, Klimecki has drawn and painted, and he also illustrates and creates graphic designs today. He studied for a year at Academy of Art College in San Fran-cisco, but expensive tuition drove him away. I had to actually make a liv-ing, he said.

Despite having to drop out of art school, Klimecki eschews the self-taught designation. I learned from all of the masters of the past who came before me, he said. Were sur-rounded by art these days. It influenc-es us to one degree or another.

Around the year 2000, he started feeling a call back to the church. He sought to join a formation class to be-

come a deacon, but the class was al-ready set. For four years, he took lay formation courses and conducted self-study. In 2004, he enrolled formally, and in 2008, was ordained a deacon. I had to relearn quite a bit of what I learned in CCD, he recalled, of child-hood religious education.

Whatever else they are, deacons

are servants first and foremost, Klimecki said, and that role presents challenges to his art.

Theres a whole industry out there that supplies people with art that may not be good for them, he said. Giv-ing people what they want is not nec-essarily what they need.

When one talks to Klimecki and reads his blog (deaconlawrence.com), which he launched in 2010, its easy to find his reflections on the in-tersection of faith and art infectious.

If told everyone is an artist, many will protest, given their inability to draw a straight line. But Klimecki cites St. John Paul IIs Letter to Art-ists (1999), when the pope said there is an artist inside each person.

Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term, John Paul wrote. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.

I agree with St. John Paul, Klimecki said. In the decisions we make and the way we live our lives, we are creating a work of art in our lives. That work of art is something that we present to God. In that sense, we are all artists.

He also believes that art is made of

the stuff of prophecy, dispelling the misconception that prophecy has to do with foretelling the future.

In biblical terms, a prophet is someone who reminded people of their relationship with God, he said. Thats not only something that artists can do in their work; thats something all of us can do by the way we live our lives and the way we talk to people.

Hes not even willing to accept that there is a fundamental difference be-tween painting a biblical scene and a seemingly secular still life or land-scape.

A landscape artist, if he has a prop-erly formed conscience, is going to show the light of God on the land-scape he is painting, Klimecki said.

But being an artist isnt all rainbows, smiles and flowers, even if those flow-ers are lilies. In the 1990s, Klimecki published comic books, but he had to drop that when the market dissipat-ed. He also created the Catholic Art-ists Guild, a Facebook page, to help give Catholic artists a venue to display and promote their work. And he recent-ly launched a stationary company, An-gelic Supply, which sells stickers, note-books, art prints and the like.

Being a religious artist of any kind is very difficult right now. Its not a terrific career path, he said. There are a lot more artists out

there than there is work available. Artists continue to create their work, because thats what they have to do.

On his blog, amid subjects such as the Italian Renaissance painter Fra Angelico, Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, Rush Lim-baughs slogan Talent on loan from God, Talmudic riddles, and a 2005 Budweiser Super Bowl commercial, Klimecki also offers advice to the re-jected Christian artist.

Rejection and failure are inevitable, and as much as a gatekeeper might tell the artist not to take them personally, I dont think that advice has ever helped anyone, Klimecki wrote in July 2010.

For religious artists, the Bible can be a guide.

We cannot let rejection settle into our hearts, for then we will allow our-selves to be content with less than we are capable of. Rejection is simply a way to let us know we still have work to do, he wrote.

And what if others reject both the artwork and the religious message behind it? God has told us what to do, shake the dust from our feet, and move on.

[MenachemWeckerisco-authorofthenew

book Consider No Evil: Two Faith Traditions

and the Problem of Academic Freedom in Reli-

gious Higher Education.]

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pigmentprint,by

LawrenceKlimecki

ARTIST: SERVANTS FIRST AND FOREMOST

SaintKateriTekakwitha,pigmentprint,byLawrenceKlimecki

In the decisions we make and the way we live our lives, we are

creating a work of art in our lives.

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