Colorado Trip 09 223 My brother (far left) and some friends took a trip out to Denver to pick up a large cookstove for the cabin that my brother is helping to build for the family of these friends. They took a little time to do some sightseeing and are pictured here on the way up Pike's Peak. My brother is back home safe now - and I am sure glad to have him home again.
On October 15, 2008, after two years as an officer in the Navy, my life changed when I was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Putting my concerns in the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary and my trust in Our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that I may be faithful to the Holy Catholic Faith and serve the Church for the rest of my life.
ANTHONY VISCO - Atelier for the Sacred Arts in Philadelphia.ANTHONY VISCO is the founder and director of The Atelier for the Sacred Arts in Philadelphia where he does commission works and offers professional services as devotional art consultant. Upon graduation from the University of the Arts, formerly, Philadelphia College of Art, he was the recipient of the Fullbright–Hayes Grant to travel and study in Italy, where he attended studios at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence. In 1975, he was awarded the Elizabeth T. Greensheilds Grant for figurative sculpture and has received the coveted Arthur Ross Award twice for sculpture in an architectural setting.
Known for his work in relief sculpture, his panels depicting the Stations of the Cross can be seen at St. Joseph’s National Shrine in Old Philadelphia as well as hisi large relief sculpture entitled, “Religious Freedom”, done for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the same church. At the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Mr. Visco has sculpted three bronze panels depicting “Baptism, Eucharist and The Word” designed for the raredose in the Catherine Pew Memorial Chapel there. In 1997 he completed two bronze reliefs of the Eleven Blessed of Novgrodech and Mother Foundress for Holy Family College Chapel.
In 1999 he began his work for Saint Rita National Shrine in Philadelphia where his reliefs, sculpture and mural paintings combine to make a most unique devotional environment. His commissions include “St. Thomas of Villanova, Father of the Poor”, a life sized group of bronze figures for Villanova Province and a bronze statue of St. Norbert for the Norbertine Community at Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, PA.
Since 2004 he has performed as fine arts coordinator for the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, WI. His current commissions there include bronze Stations of the Cross, a series of porcelain murals for the Rosary Walk, the Four Pendentives murals depicting The Doctors of the Church, the Baldicchino Angels, and the Narthex ceiling mural of “The Visions of Guadalupe.”
His lectures include:
Saint Francis of Assisi and the Renaissance ImaginationThe Art of DevotionNuditas: The Theology of the Body in Sacred ArtI love this particular writing from his website:
"To make sacred art is to wed one’s faith with one’s esthetics in hopes to bring even closer, “the created” to our Creator, to shorten the real or imagined gap between “the called” with the Caller. When the artist answers, when this invitation is met successfully, a covenant is formed; the work is sanctified. This covenant is then extended from God to artist and from artist to fellow believers and finally back to God again. It is this covenant that we wish to explore here. As faith and aesthetic works combine, the work in turn is employed to reflect those beliefs. As culture becomes infused with and by our trust and hope in God, sacred art becomes an indeterminate good, a means by which we may come together and witness the meeting of heaven and earth. Thus, sacred art can not ever be the same give and take between artist and society as secular art."
- From "The Anatomy of Sacred Art" by Anthony ViscoPlease visit: http://www.anthonyvisco.org/index.html to see many of his amazing pieces. Also I added a link in the side-bar under 'Art'
Friends and family came together to decorate our parish* for the midnight mass. We lit everything with only candle-light and back lighting from the stained-glass windows - we has about a 1000 candles. We spent a few days making cedar garlands and wreaths from trees from our property. We had candles everywhere - hanging, suspended from the ceiling, in window sills, and everywhere we could put them. We also put 3 live cedar trees up front. I found yards of gorgeous fabric at a bargain $30 (fabric cascades down both sides from the cross). Parishioners donated 30 poinsettia plants which added so much color. It is amazing how much lighting can change the whole feel of a place and the feel of the atmosphere at midnight was one of wonder, awe, and reverence.
