Richard Caemmerer – Art & the Gospels

Our mornings have been filled with slide presentations of artwork related to the Gospels and Richard Caemmerer’s vast international experience, varied insights, and numerous anecdotes. Wednesday we learned about representations and symbols of the four gospels. Mark is typically depicted as a winged lion; Matthew as a winged human; Luke as an ox with wings, and John as an eagle. Our assignment was to depict one of the gospel symbols; I chose Luke and included the infant Jesus because of Luke’s focus on the nativity. Janai used her typography skills to create an amazing lion (see her artwork) and our classmate Kate (from Trinity Seminary in Columbus OH) incorporated all four symbols into a single design. I am humbled ….

Our next lecture focused on specific representations of the annunciation and nativity and the “sacra conversazione” (sacred conversation – think of Mary and the infant Jesus inviting Grandma Anna and John the Baptist over for tea along with a couple saints and patrons of the particular work). Our assignment for Thursday evening was to draw several vignettes – a quick gesture drawing with a splash of color. I have to confess that I’m a slow learner – I kept wanting to color within the lines instead of outside. But I have learned and am really excited about being able to capture subjects quickly. Good lesson for a detail-oriented guy like me.

We discussed Rublev’s “Holy Trinity” icon – the one I chose to draw for my Church History project last semester. Once again it was pressed home how presumptuous I was in doing this – but I’ve learned so much about this icon and iconography through these lessons. Finally, we saw and discussed Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son, a deep, touching and mysterious representation of the homecoming. (see Henry Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming).
Our last two lectures have been about representations of the life and teachings of Jesus. The artwork shared has been both historical and contemporary, of both eastern and western traditions (did you know that Byzantine paintings typically have a gold thread meandering through them?), and African, Japanese, North and South American, Native American, and Caribbean origin. Richard also shared some children’s artwork that spoke to the topics with directness, joy and simplicity.
Friday afternoon we did a shaded detail drawing of our thumbs (not much room for creative interpretation there) and a contour drawing of a glass drinking jar. This seemed a little easier for me. Our assignment Friday night was to create our own interpretation of Jesus’ baptism (Mark 1:4-11) for a bulletin cover. We’re supposed to share our renditions this afternoon …..
Fun fact: Richard Caemmerer designed the Budweiser beer logo back in the 50’s; supposedly his name is hidden somewhere on it. No one here has found it …. Let me know if you find it!

During our final lecture, we explored some of the hundreds of church/sacred space/stained-glass windows that Richard has created over the last 50 years, and talked about art in liturgy, sacred space design, and Christian community. We came away with a lot of ideas on how to draw community together through art.