Meet NYC-based Artist Geoffrey Gneuhs
Images courtesy of Geoffrey Gneuhs
GEOFFREY GNEUHS is an NYC-based visual artist, practicing oil painting, watercolor and drawing. Visit his website at www.geoffreygneuhs.com or email him at gneuhsart@aol.com.
CATHOLIC ARTIST CONNECTION: Where are you from originally, and what brought you to New York?
I grew up in a suburb of Chicago and came east to attend Providence College. I have lived in the East ever since.
How do understand your vocation as a Catholic artist? Do you call yourself a Catholic artist?
I am an artist who is Catholic. My faith is at the core of my being.
I have done religious paintings, but my main focus is on the human figure, as St. Thomas Aquinas taught that the human person is the most perfect creature in nature. (I also paint cityscapes and landscapes.) In painting a portrait, I try to capture the soul of the individual---the mystery that is within each of us.
In a broader sense, recall G. K. Chesterton's epigram:
“Art is the signature of man."
We are by nature, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, co-creators with God. It is Christ who reveals fully what it is to be human. Thus true art, great art, is transcendental. Beauty, truth, goodness are called the transcendentals.
As Pope Benedict XVI often pointed out, beauty leads us to truth. Take for example, Picasso's 'Guernica'. In the conventional sense it would not be called beautiful. But it is full of truth of the horrors we human beings can commit, and it also points us to the possibility of our striving for goodness.
Where have you found support in the Church for your vocation as an artist?
On a practical level I am blessed---really---to have studio space in a tower of a landmarked church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I consider it the one miracle in my life. It is a story of the providential kindness of a stranger. The church is dedicated to the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. It is a very contemplative and holy place.
Over the years, I have been nourished by various writers on art and beauty, for example, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Etienne Gilson, John Saward, and especially, Pope John Paul II's "Letter to Artists" (April 1999). I highly recommend it for all members of CAC. He writes:
"Beauty ... is an invitation to savor life and to dream of the future."
St. Trophine by Geoffrey Gneuhs
Beauty, like great art, stirs the imagination and nourishes our sense of wonder. As St. Augustine wrote:
"Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new. Late have I loved you."
How can the Church be more welcoming to artists?
It would be wonderful if parishes would host artist gatherings, offer spaces for exhibitions, and commission artists---and pay them!
How can the artistic world be more welcoming to artists of faith?
We cannot expect to be "welcomed" by the artistic world. We must be true to ourselves. We must continue on the mission of all people of faith, as co-creators with God. The world is saturated with nihilism, anger, & destruction. So much art today reflects that; it is solipsistic and mocks man and God.
Where in NYC do you regularly find spiritual fulfillment?
I attend Mass at Old St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mott Street. I highly recommend it as a place of solemn worship. Recently, it hosted the Pope Benedict XVI Institute, which sponsored the Mass for the Americas, commissioned by Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco, and composed by Mr. Frank LaRocca, who has also composed a Requiem Mass for the Homeless, also commissioned by Archbishop Cordileone.
Where in NYC do you regularly find artistic fulfillment?
I visit museums and galleries and am very aware of the natural beauty and architectural beauty in the city.
What is your daily spiritual practice?
Each morning I pray the Divine Office. I like starting my day in prayer and silence. I also use the Magnificat Missal and pray the Rosary at night.
What is your daily artistic practice?
As I share my studio with a colleague, I am there three days a week. It is important to be regularly engaged in our craft.
Ben Winslow by Geoffrey Gneuhs
Describe a recent day in which you were most completely living out your vocation as an artist.
Although not recent, years ago I knew a homeless man named Ben who took a bed at a shelter on the Bowery. He was mute and rather deaf and had some mental issues. I befriended him and one day asked him if I could paint his portrait. He answered with an affirmative grunt. I knew he would be unable to sit to a portrait, so I took a photograph (my preference is to paint from life), after several weeks I finished the painting and brought it to show him. I was a bit apprehensive. But when I unveiled it, his large smile and gleam in his eyes spoke volumes that words could not have conveyed. Pure joy!
How do you financially support yourself as an artist?
In past years I have been a freelance editor, part-time, while I studied at the New York Academy of Art and the Art Students League. I now teach one day a week a watercolor and drawing class at a senior center. I enjoy this as it's an opportunity to encourage the folks to develop talents they never realized they had. Some are very talented.
What advice do you have for Catholic artists post-graduation?
Don't get discouraged, keep working at your craft even if it is not full time, and never give up. And remember, as Dostoyevsky wrote---and whom Dorothy Day often quoted:
"Beauty will save the world."