The Artist Goes To School
Some of the most enjoyable and meaningful work I have done has been commissions for schools. I’d like to explore why that is by relating a few common traits of the schools I have worked with. I’ll finish by sharing the story of delivering a recent work of art to St Jerome Academy in Hyattsville, MD.
I use compositional studies as a way for the school community to give feedback on specific parts of the painting before working on the final. Here is a study for “Odysseus with the Winnowing Oar”
Firstly, the schools I have worked with share a strong sense of communal identity, a shared spirit or ethos. My job is to give this ethos a physical form, which is more a process of discovery than originality. Sometimes working on a painting feels like writing a lecture, requiring careful and slow work. This process has its own merit, but working with schools has been more like conducting an interview with a truly interesting person. All the content is there, it just needs to be brought to the light.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that a common trait of these schools interested in commissioning original art are themselves original and worth celebrating. They each have their own story, traditions and practices, and quirks, which set them apart from other schools. For this reason the artwork will often take me into surprising directions, and I have found myself studying whole new mediums or techniques to capture the personality of a particular community. The resulting artwork has at times differed greatly from one school commission to the next. Simultaneously, these schools also share a commitment to tradition: they have all been either Catholic or classical schools - a couple have been both. I find this combination of tradition and originality attractive to work with.
Lastly, I will add that these school communities are wellsprings of wonder. I have had the joy of spending time with students, faculty members and parents of these schools— in fact, in two cases it was the parents who reached out and commissioned the paintings. With all these groups there is a shared sense of wonder in the way they see education, in the way they talk about their curriculum, and in the way they have approached my work as a painter. All these traits have contributed to making the commissioning process exciting and properly challenging. I think several of these commissions have been some of my best work to date, and I look forward to sharing them with you as they are completed.
“Odysseus and the Winnowing Oar” , mineral paints on cement panel with a Sapele wood frame I designed . This was a commission for Trinity of Meadowview School in Falls Church, VA. I worked with the school head and faculty on the imagery for this painting, who provided input and critique. It depicts the final scene from the Odyssey and will hang in the central meeting hall of the school.
The former principal, Danny Flynn, is presented a print by the parent association. The original work hangs in the parish while a large print welcomes students at the school. Many families have framed prints in their home to celebrate their patron.
To give you a glimpse into the process, I thought I would share a story of delivering a recent painting commissioned by the parent association of the wonderful St. Jerome Academy in Hyattsville, MD. They reached out last year about commissioning a work to celebrate their former headmaster, Danny Flynn, and appropriately decided on commissioning an image of their patron saint. I spent the next several months working on the piece (sorry, no 3-5 business days here!) before it was ready for the “delivery day” - the feast day of the school’s patron saint.
My wife and I piled the kids into our minivan and arrived at 9:14am for a 9:15am Mass. As Emily unloaded the kids, I pulled out the 7ft wooden easel that was precariously situated in the aisle between three car seats. The new principal of St. Jerome Academy, Kevin Somok, was patiently waiting at the church door to help me transport the awaited commission. The 4 foot work of art just barely fit inside the back of our minivan. Maia, whose car seat is in the back row, kept a good eye on it as we navigated the potholes of Route 1. As I made my way down the church aisle carrying the easel, a couple hundred pairs of little eyes watched me. I heard the whispers increase as I rotated the easel’s knobs and levers, and hushed gasps as the Principal took the frame out of its case to place it upright. I joined Emily and the kids in a back pew as Mass began with the hymn “Praise to the Lord, the King of Creation” beautifully sung by the school choir.
The work is blessed during St. Jerome‘s feast day mass.
After the homily, the pastor Fr. Scott formally blessed my work with holy water and recited a litany and prayer of blessing (partially displayed below.) A print was then presented to Danny Flynn, former principal of the academy, by the school’s parent association which commissioned the work. The parents of St Jerome Academy came together to fund an original work to honor Mr. Flynn’s extraordinary contribution to the school. I couldn’t help feeling during the whole mass that I was part of something bigger. Everyone wasn’t gathered to see my painting, like unveilings and show openings I’ve done in the past. They were gathered to celebrate something far more important: their school, their principal and their patron saint, but most importantly to celebrate the center of reality without which there would be no gathering and no communion: the Eucharist. The ritual, the music, the artwork, the community - it all came together organically in a joyful, celebratory way. As I listened to the children chant the closing hymn “God We Praise Thee” I was reminded of a passage from Pieper writing about the arts in public worship: “Such service is not merely "serving" ends; on the contrary, it is the highest and perhaps the only way for art to be completely itself and to arrive "autonomously" at its most essential goal: the praise of Creation.”
That morning, on the feast of St. Jerome, I was reminded that my work is successful not if it is looked at, but looked through - to things far more real than pieces of paper and paint.
St. Jerome at Study, 2in x 38in, cut paper collage
"Andrew de Sa's ‘St. Jerome at Study’ is a great blessing to our school community. Our Educational Plan rightly notes that "There can be no desire for truth without beauty" (p. 106). Andrew's collage at once adds beauty to our school and reminds us to look to St. Jerome as a model of Christian scholarship: diligently pursuing Truth as revealed in Sacred Scripture. The unveiling of St. Jerome at Study also provided an occasion for parent formation, as Andrew delivered a edifying lecture entitled "Image as the Arrow of Beauty."
- Kevin Somok, Principal of St. Jerome Academy, Hyattsville MD
Andrew de Sa can be reached with inquiries and commission requests at andrew@studiodesa.com