A.R. Danziger, Art & Design

I finally completed a painting I've been working on since last summer.  Poster prints on archival heavyweight paper are available here . La Sagrada Família / The Holy family by A.R. Danziger. Acrylic and metal leaf on wooden panel, 30" x 24". This will be hanging up in Holy Family Bilingual Catholic School where my daughter has been flourishing in the school's dual language (English/Spanish) immersion program. It's a very special school; Christ-centered with a family atmosphere. Their motto is: "One family, diverse in backgrounds, united in faith."  I felt inspired to work in a style that represented this vision, so I looked to early Medieval Spanish art which combined so many diverse cultures into something unique and beautiful to serve and glorify Our Lord. The outer border, angels, stars, and background colors were inspired by Mozarabic illuminated manuscripts.  This illustration from a commentary on the book of Revelation has unique decorative eleme...

  I actually sketched out this painting 5 years ago and just got around to painting it in March during the first COVID-19 lockdown.  My sense of humor comes out when it seems like the end is nigh: During the Middle Ages, illustrated commentaries on the Apocalypse (Book of Revelation) were quite popular. This piece uses the common conventions for representing the angel blowing the second trumpet (Rev 8:8) but I added details that make it more personal to my experience of living in Seattle.  There are some days when Mt. Rainier is visible from the West Seattle bridge, but the base is obscured by clouds that make it appear to hover in the air.  The fish are sockeye salmon...the dead ones have red pigmentation at the end of their life cycle. The land is covered in native wildflowers; trillium and fringe cup. Also white star flowers and coastal wormwood to forshadow the next trumpet. Here's the same scene from the Cloisters Apocalypse (14th centruy A.D.) for comparison:

I finished this painting early this year. This shows Saint Michael the Archangel casting the devil (represented by a dragon) down out of heaven. I painted it using acrylics and metal leaf. I used the style and conventions found in Romanesque period illuminated manuscripts for my inspiration. This was sold at my daughter's Catholic school auction, and I was very honored to find out that a seminarian won it.

I intend this to be the first in a series of early Scottish saints: Saint Ninian, the first Apostle of Christianity in Scotland  St. Ninian, Bishop of Whithorn, first missionary to Scotland, and Apostle to the Picts (d. 432 A.D.) He is shown here carrying a Gospel book, bishop's crozier, and his bell (the Clogrinny) used for summoning monks to pra y the divine office. His vestments are modelled on the clothes in the Book of Kells, and the geometric lettering is based on the incipit from the Lindisfarne Gospels. Some of the details are a bit anachronistic, but tie him to the town of Whithorn in Dumfries and Galloway where he founded the first church in Scotland, Candida Casa (the White House). The Whithorn crozier is a historic artifact owned by one of Ninian's successors in the 12th century. He stands in the doorway of Whithorn priory's ruins. The cross on his Gospel book is from the Peter Stone at Whithorn. Available on Zazzle

This is still a work in progress, but I completed the inking stage of my latest work. it's a crucifixion scene which incorporates symbolic Medieval conventions, flanked by 6 scenes from the Old Testament that the Early Church Fathers and Medieval theologians viewed as "types" of Christ or of His sacrifice. I worked on this all during Lent and took a short break to work on the "Man of Sorrows" drawing from my last post to test out my new Pigma Micron pens.  I was sad to say goodbye to my faithful Rapidograph drafting pens but they were getting too old and clogged. Now I'm taking another detour and working on a small watercolor piece to prepare to paint this! When it's finally finished, I'll create a small guide with references to all of the passages of Scripture contained in this image.

I finished this drawing of “The Man of Sorrows” in time for Passion Sunday.  This is one of those rare subjects that is traditionally represented the same way in both Eastern icons and Western paintings/ woodcuts.  It was possibly inspired by the Shroud of Turin (previously known as the Image of Edessa before it was taken from Constantinople by Crusaders.)

It's that time of year again when my dear husband carefully prepares home-brewed beer in our garage in anticipation of the parish Oktoberfest.  I've designed a couple of new labels for the occasion, and he has high hopes for these two new batches: For the first I re-did the old label and made it specifically for the Dunkelweizen which he's been refining for the past couple of years: The second is for a roggenbier -  a medieval style of rye beer, which is much like a hefeweizen but using rye grain instead of wheat.  I thought to myself, what could be more suitably medieval than the Harvest of the Earth from Revelation 14 found in 12th century illuminated manuscripts? Here's the one from Paris MS 403 which was my primary inspiration: Here is my version, using Daniel Smith walnut ink:

A while ago I had the great privilege of collaborating with Altarworthy Handmade Vestments to create a design for the back of a priest's chasuble. Here was my original concept: Here is the finished product, modified by Altarworthy and used on a real chasuble! This is a close-up showing the metallic embroidery on the chalice and the red garnets which symbolize Christ's 5 wounds: This is part of a vestment set for newly ordained Fr. James Mawdsley, FSSP.  "O Holy Mother of God, pray for the priests your Son has chosen to serve the Church. Help them, by your intercession, to be holy, zealous, and chaste. Make them models of virtue in the service of God's people. Help them be pious in meditation, efficacious in preaching, and zealous in the daily offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Help them administer the Sacraments with love and joy. Amen."  -St. Charles Borromeo