May 2023 Art Update - Marriage is Courageous
May 2023 Art Update
This month I became good friends with USPS. 50 orders of prints (and counting!)
May is coming to a close and we are all entering the summer months!
The studio was full of activity, fulfilling orders for the $5 print deal (which is still active through the summer!), working through packaging kinks, and wrapping up commissions.
Art Updates
The finished painting of St. Raphael finally made it’s way to Fr. Ketterlin! Later we realized I delivered it on the anniversary of his priesthood! The Holy Spirit is thoughtful like that:) He was very happy with the final painting and will hang over his fireplace until some room opens up in the baptistry of St. Mary’s church in Independence, MO.
My brother Griffin and his wife Kathryn moved into their first home this month! I surprised them with a watercolor to commemorate this special memory:)
I finished this commission of the 13th Station of the Cross for Jon - Veronica wiping the face of Jesus.
If you didn’t see the big news…I’m famous now! The Leaven wrote up an amazing article about me, my work, and the triptychs at Holy Name. If you haven’t gotten the chance to read it, click the link here!
Pre-order You Will Save Her prints!
Is your fridge like mine? Cramped with save the dates and wedding invites? If so, this image of St. Raphael might be the perfect unique gift for your courageous friends!
My priest always says that marriage is a courageous thing. And it is - making a vow to be faithful to someone for the rest of your life with very little knowledge of what that life will entail.
This is not for the faint of heart.
Marriage also images the love of God for His people - full, free, committed, and fruitful. Which is why the enemy hates it. He does everything he can to destroy this vocation.
In this painting I did for Fr. Ketterlin (who ministers to married couples daily), St. Raphael is depicted as the protector of marriage in the book of Tobit in the Bible.
In the book of Tobit, Sarah has had seven husbands that are each killed by a demon on their wedding night. In her sorry plight, she prays that God ends her life as she and her marriage bed is full of shame. Across the country, an old man Tobit prays a similar prayer as he is destitute and blind.
God hears their prayers and sends Raphael the angel to guide Tobit’s son Tobiah on his journey to find money his father had buried.
Raphael encourages him to marry Sarah. “Do not be afraid, for she was set apart for you before the world was made. You will save her.”
On the night of their wedding, Tobiah lights incense with the heart and liver of a fish who attacked him earlier in the story and speaks a beautiful prayer:
“Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose. Call down your mercy on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age.”
Because of the incense and Tobiah’s prayer, the demon is warded off and Raphael binds him up and casts him out. The holy couple survives the night and all is redeemed!
I wanted this painting to show how though our prayers seem small (the incense and the couple are the smallest in the paintings), the reality of prayer is massive up above (shown in Raphael’s mighty stance carrying the demon). The marital bed frame is also a visual “protection” of their marriage with the nuptial prayer carved into the wood in Latin.
Other symbols:
The fish and knife pattern in the curtains point to the fish in the story
The sleeping dog is a symbol of fidelity
Lilies pay an homage to St. Joseph the husband of Mary
A box and spoon on the nightstand is an old symbol of healing
There are images on the drawers below the bed depicting the story (Sarah and Tobit’s prayers for death, God sending Raphael from Heaven, and Raphael leading Tobiah on their journey).
God Bless You!
-Mattie
