Sacred Art

Last week before I went to Cancun I dropped my dog off at my aunt's in London. After I dropped him off I went down-town to grab an icecream and walk around Victoria park. It was an abnormally nice day so I didn't want to waste it driving all day. Beside the park is a huge beautiful Catholic church that I have alway wanted to go in and look around at. I have only been inside one Catholic church before and that was in San Fran. It wasn't very big or all that old because the great fire of San Francisco had burned it down back in the day.
The Catholic church in London is much older than the one from SF, apparently it was the first church ever built in London. So I went in and started looking around. It was gorgeous! It is the type of church I would love to get married in except I'm not Catholic. It had beatiful stained glass that created rainbows of shadows on the opposing walls, it had spectacular candle lit prayer stations that were accented with gold foiled statues and a plaster knock off statue of the Christ and Mary(forget the proper name) that I learned about in OAC art history.
When I entered the sanctuary I was filled with a sense of aw and sacredness. The space was definetly meant to be a sacred place of quiet contemplative reflection on Christ's death. Another girl walked inside after I did. She went to a pew and knelt to pray. I un-ceremonially pulled out my camera and started snapping pictures of all the art. I felt a little rude about doing it but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity of capturing what I saw. The girl began lighting candles shortly and then suddenly this bossy snarky voice piped up and said 'you have to pay for all of those you know'. The girl and I looked up stunned because I think we had both thought that we were the only two people inside the church. The girl just said a small scared 'oh' and then scurried to her bag to get some coins. I was really annoyed at the nasty lady who had scolded the girl and was very tempted to say something along the lines of 'wow, what would jesus say?' or 'who cares! It is her first time in a Catholic church'. But I held my tongue and just prayed that the girl would not be afraid to enter a church again because of some stupid protective catholic born women who held onto the ritual rather than the love of her faith.
What I had noticed about the other girl who had entered the church to pray was that she looked like she was of Eastern decent, not your typical white anglo euro catholic. I thought that she could have been Italian but I'm pretty sure she wasn't. It made me wonder why she had come to the chuch? Maybe like myself she had alway seen the church and wanted to go in and then when she saw me enter she decided to take a chance as well. Maybe she was realizing her own faith was not the faith that she wanted to be a part of and so she timidly scurried into the shelter of the monstrous catholic church?
As I was admiring the art I was taking pictures of I wondered 'If I am taking pictures of these pieces of art am I making art myself or am I just stealing someone elses art?' Cuz I was capturing the pieces at different angles, playing with the reflection of light glinting off of them. I'm not sure? I'm sorry I still can't figure out how to DL pics on here but I'll try and DL the pics onto my myspace for you to see.
Also I know that Catholic churches have been built as acts of worship not simply to be the biggest and most beautiful but at a cost to the patrons who attend. Sometimes it took hundreds of years for european churches to be built. People would sometimes never see the finished products of their labour. You look at churches today and they are so sterile, they may have the odd banner hanging from the wall but no intricate craftsmanship in the design. The only thought that goes into the design is to have a large enough gym to have a huge basketball event for the youth group.
These are just my meanderings on church art.









I miss you.