https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=vDurjmc8_y8
Those of us that have left the contemporary art world and entered into this participative art, it is amazing. It is, it’s hard, it’s so hard because when I meet artists, they don’t understand. Like contemporary artists, like you make what? You make religious pictures for churches? Really? Oh, okay. And then they think that I’m doing it kind of by default because I couldn’t make it, you know, as an artist. That’s what they think. That’s what they think. It’s hilarious. But they don’t understand the joy because when I make, when I make an icon, so I’m going to start showing you some of my icons as I go through this. So when I make an icon, I am engaging in the language of the church. So like a poem, you know, like any form of ancient art, you know, like a poem that has form, anything that has a basic structure which we can all agree upon and which brings us together, which makes us know that I am, I am part of this culture rather than this other culture. Like I’m somewhere in the world. I’m part of a group. I’m part of a communion of people. So I participate in the language of the church, but then I’m also participating in the community of the church because I am making objects for specific uses. I am making an object for someone who wants an icon of their patron saint. I am making an object for a church who is looking for a specific icon that they want to have out there. I’m making a blessing cross so that the priest can bless the people. And so the object that I’m making is connected to the community. But at the same time, what is what’s amazing about the luck that we have making liturgical art is that the subject of my art reaches as high, talks about mysteries that are as esoteric, as powerful, as hidden as any contemporary artist would ever be able to touch. And so it’s not just that I’m, liturgical art is not just that I’m, there’s a nobility in making a chair. And there’s a beautiful nobility making a chair. But when you’re making an object which also participates in this language of narrative of the church, then you’re also dealing with, so you’re connecting these stories, these principles, and you’re connecting them with actual objects that are then going to participate in the world. I always say that liturgical art reaches higher than contemporary art, and it reaches lower than contemporary art because it connects actual used objects with these higher principles. And so that’s why I think that liturgical art is the only solution for the cultural problem.