Summer 2026: Back to School
Ciao ragazzi!
Hello from Florence, and from my last day (the musings in these first three paragraphs are hot off the dome) as a student at the Sacred Art School. As with the past few summers, I have been so blessed to take this time off from commissions for both spiritual and creative side quests. The Sacred Art School had been on my bucket list ever since I stumbled upon @mafi_ct’s content and learned that other artists I had long admired were graduates of their master’s program. It just so happened that a wedding I planned to attend in Fatima ended the day before their summer workshops began. So, with God’s providence at work, I decided it was finally time to learn the fundamentals of sculpture. Little did I know that I would walk away having learned so much more.
When I was last in Florence, I had the privilege of learning marble carving and although the techniques were invaluable, I was missing a foundational understanding of form and composition that was best learned in clay. Enter classical renaissance training. There is a beauty in the way they teach art at this school. Before we even saw clay we began with two weeks of sketching - everything from still life to figure and portrait drawing. All following a very methodical approach that appealed to my analytical engineering brain.
Silhouette > Local Values > Shadow Shapes > Refining Lines > Mid Tones/Background
Those two weeks gave me not only the framework I needed to create cohesive, well-proportioned sketches but also taught me how to see. From squinting to simplify shapes to identifying reference points and evaluating negative space, the experience was changing the way I saw everything. You know they did good when you leave class and your usual avoidant eye contact tendencies are replaced with long stares as you evaluate the different shadows and planes of a friend's face.
It took some time to set aside bad habits and retrain myself in the school's drawing techniques. That wasn't the case with sculpture, since the last time I had any formal training in clay was back in elementary school, when I created the masterpiece you see below. So working with clay was truly a greenfield project, and I was excited to learn everything Etienne had to teach me.
We began our training with a master copy of David's eye, followed by a low-relief portrait. Through these two exercises, I learned a lot about how the viewer interacts with a sculpture versus a painting. The three-dimensional nature of sculpture inherently lends itself to multiple viewing angles, and these different perspectives proved just as valuable in the creation process. We used multiple viewpoints to gather more information about our subjects, always making sure to step back and observe from a distance to reduce distortion (yet another incredibly valuable tidbit I had never considered before this course).
We drew on the clay just as we had during the previous weeks. It was neat to see how working with clay reinforced the skills we had learned in drawing, and vice versa. We began by identifying the silhouette and finding the shadow shapes before studying planar and volumetric relationships. The low relief was a particularly valuable exercise because it allowed me to study the anatomy of a live model's face through these relationships. Identifying the highest and lowest points along the profile and using them as reference points for other areas of the face was an incredibly edifying process.
The second week built on the skills we had already learned and introduced even more complexity through live figure sculpting in the round, as well as a high-relief sculpture from a photo reference. Much like drawing full figures, it was challenging to resolve proportions and identify reference points, especially as each turn of the model revealed new problem areas. More than my joints, it was my brain that hurt at the end of these sessions! However, as difficult as it was, the whole process was still a lot of fun. Live figure sculpting gave me a foundational understanding of the human form simply through observation.
Sculpting the Sinai Pantocrator as a high relief was an equally challenging and rewarding project. As an iconographer, I am accustomed to working in two dimensions, with the understanding that reverse perspective and the lack of depth are symbolic of the close presence of the saints. So sculpting an icon challenged that paradigm and resulted in a piece that may not be classically categorized as an icon but still wholly represents Christ's presence in our lives today.
It was interesting to translate this already rather naturalistic icon into sculpture by cross-referencing the image with typical facial anatomy. Beginning with a cross-section/profile of the highest points of the face (the midline), then relating the positions of the eye sockets, cheeks, lips, etc., was a really neat way to ensure the volumetric hierarchy was correct. It was techniques like these, which I would never have thought to employ on my own, that made this such an invaluable experience.
Apart from the technical skills, one of the greatest takeaways from this experience was the gift of fellowship.
I have always said that one of the things I miss most about my PM career was the teamwork and sense of community. There was something special about bringing people together to build great products around a shared vision and goal. My life in Houston is rather monastic in comparison. Apart from post-Mass/Qurbana chats with the priest, pew friends, and family, my days are typically spent in solitude at the easel. So, a summer spent with artists who shared the same goal of creating sacred art was a real gift.
My time at the school exposed me to what it looks and feels like to create in community. It was incredible to be challenged, motivated, and supported by my fellow classmates and instructors. Unlike my solitary practice, there were constant opportunities to learn from others and share in our creative endeavors. Whether decompressing and laughing together over a meal (or an aperitivo :)), receiving feedback and corrections, or simply taking the time to marvel at the talents of others, it was a real privilege to share this experience with such talented artists.
The graces I received this summer were innumerable, and the skills I learned are ones I know will continue to shape my career as an artist. Now that I am back in Houston, I am excited to put my sculpture skills into practice with a few personal projects. Having a medium I can easily pick up on the weekends between icon commissions (clay has proven to be much easier to source than marble!) is something I'm really looking forward to.
Having experienced the fruits of fellowship in the arts, I am also eager to continue cultivating that sense of community. As a first step, I have joined the Catholic Artists Alliance and am now on the lookout for more local communities. If you are a sacred artist based in Houston who has stumbled upon this blog, please shoot me an email! I'd love to chat.
I can't wait to see how God continues to mold my career and community, and I am so grateful to the Sacred Art School for playing such a pivotal role in that journey. Can't recommend them enough!