Meet Dallas-based Artist Maria Haag
Maria Haag is a painter, animator, and musician based in Dallas, Texas. You can find out more about Maria on Instagram and on her website.
CATHOLIC ARTIST CONNECTION: Where are you from originally, and what brought you to your current city?
MARIA HAAG: Originally I'm from Dickinson, North Dakota. My family moved to Kansas when I was 11, but I love North Dakota so I went to college there for a few years. I completed my undergrad degree at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas and moved to the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex (I've lived in Fort Worth, then Arlington, and now Dallas for the past 8 years) to find a more active artist community. I ended up going to graduate school at the University of North Texas in Denton, an hour north of Dallas, and between grad school and the other Dallas artists I've met, I have a supportive and exciting artist community here.
How do understand your vocation as a Catholic artist?
I don't believe in qualifying myself as a Catholic artist. I am an artist, and I am a Catholic. I make art that corresponds with the reality around me, often in abstracted or distorted ways, and I hope that it helps people to take a longer look around them and connect with reality as well. Long ago in philosophy class, I learned a Thomistic definition of truth - the correspondence of the mind with reality - and this is the primary motivation behind my art. Truth leads to God, so by corresponding with reality, my art ultimately leads to God. It reflects my own personal, spiritual journey.
Where have you found support in the Church for your vocation as an artist?
Honestly, I don't have alot of support from the Church. Perhaps it's because I don't want to make moralizing art that fits into one narrow category. I find moralizing art to be uninteresting, and I don't want to exclude those who aren't Catholic. I have found support in the liturgy and in my own spiritual reading - currently I'm reading the spiritual letters written by Jean Pierre de Caussade, On the Practice of Self Abandonment to Divine Providence, and I find them incredibly helpful not only to my spiritual life but also to my artistic process.
Where have you found support among your fellow artists for your Catholic faith?
I have several friends who are devout Christian artists, writers, and musicians. I find their thoughts and feedback very helpful, and I love to hang out with them and have discussions about life and art.
Where in your city do you regularly find spiritual fulfillment?
I'm really grateful for the artist community in Dallas. My studio is in an area of Dallas called the Tin District - it's a large community of artists who really support each other. We have two open studios a year, and we meet up once a month for happy hours. I also participated in a residency at the Cedars Union, which is a non profit artist incubator program in Dallas. Thanks for Cedars Union, I got to know quite a few local artists. Many of them have studios in the Tin District and so I can easily hang out with friends and reach out to acquaintances for studio visits, coffees, or tacos and margaritas. We have a great Mexican restaurant around the corner with killer margaritas!
Since I'm also a musician, I'm very inspired by music and by visual art. I live 15 minutes from the cultural area of downtown Dallas, full of museums, galleries, and concert halls. On Saturdays I go to gallery openings to see what's new in the contemporary scene and say hi to friends who are making the same rounds. My favorite museums in the area are the Crow Museum of Asian Art in Dallas and the Kimball Museum and Modern Museum in Fort Worth. I love going to Dallas and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra performances. Recently I went to a Chopin piano performance at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. There are also free pop up concerts that happen, like a really lovely Mothers Day themed orchestra performance at a local mall, or free concerts in Klyde Warren Park which is across the street from the Dallas museums and concert halls. I'm very grateful for the vibrant cultural life here.
What is your daily spiritual practice?
I do a few minutes of spiritual reading in the morning and say a Rosary every day. I find these extremely helpful to my peace of mind. Anyone who's an artist knows the constant doubt and the rain of rejections that happen. I'm a rather mercurial person; sometimes seeing the perfect telephone wire silhouetted against the sky can give me a sense of euphoria for hours, but I also get very depressed. The Rosary and the spiritual reading, as well as the constant prayer life I'm trying to develop, really help me to keep my peace of soul.
What is your daily artistic practice?
I don't make it to the studio every day, but I do keep my eyes open and try to really see and enjoy what happens around me. I've discovered that small things I've seen come out later when I'm painting in the studio. I recently clocked quite a lot of hours curating a show in Fort Worth and finishing an 80" painting for a group show in Dallas (in an abandoned hotel! so cool) so I'm taking a short break to recover, but I typically reserve 3–4 days a week to paint or even just putter around in the studio. I recommend keeping a sketchbook practice and making intuitive drawings in the morning or before bed. The results are always interesting and these really invigorate my studio practice.