The Function of Art

Pope Pius XII in his address to Italian artists talked of the function of Art. I quote a few paragraphs below.

5. The function of all art lies in fact in breaking through the narrow and tortuous enclosure of the finite, in which man is immerged while living here below, and in providing a window to the infinite for his hungry soul. 

6. Thus it follows that any effort—and it would be a vain one, indeed—aimed at denying or suppressing any relation between art and religion must impair art itself. Whatever artistic beauty one may wish to grasp in the world, in nature and in man, in order to express it in sound, in color, or in plays for the masses, such beauty cannot prescind from God. Whatever exists is bound to Him by an essential relationship. Hence, there is not, neither in life nor in art—be it intended as an expression of the subject or as an interpretation of the object—the exclusively "human," the exclusively "natural" or "immanent."

7. The greater the clarity with which art mirrors the infinite, the divine, the greater will be its possibility for success in striving toward its ideal and true, artistic accomplishment. Thus, the more an artist lives religion, the better prepared he will be to speak the language of art, to understand its harmonies, to communicate its emotions.

The Agony of Jesus

I used a picture from a free religious dingbat font, enlarged it to A4 sized, stapled it to a black pastel paper and tweaked a few lines here and there so that everything is connected before I started cutting.  The second photo shows the papercut placed against a white construction paper. I like the striking contrast between the black papercut and the white background. I also like the dark lines and shadows, although the folds on Jesus' sleeve are a bit cluttered, I must say. I hope to do more of this kind in my next papercuts.

Papercut Motto

I designed this for Lent. It's my second papercut project. I realized I made a wrong choice of font when I started cutting and was left with thin letters. I finished it anyway. With this lesson behind me (make that, papercutting lesson number 1), I hope to make a better design next time. It would have probably fared better if the letters were the ones to be cut out, as opposed to being left intact. Oh well, on to the next project.