ASSISI

Pilgrimage and Purpose: The Spiritual Journey of an Artist in Assisi, Italy Pilgrimage.  My mid forties has brought a question of my greater sense of purpose, new pursuits, and a deep desire for sanctification. An art residency in Assisi, Italy, ArteStudio Ginestrelle,  graced my pilgrim path this spring, and brought a fresh body of work, Cielo Velato, which in Italian is a poetic term meaning "veiled sky".  Sometimes that veil is thinner, and we see a marvelous glimpse of God's glory, His beauty, His creation, His purpose- we taste and see that He is good. Other times, that veil feels drawn over our eyes, eternity feels as it is named, a distant concept, a mystery so far beyond our understanding. This body of art work was created over a period of 30 days, during the season of Lent. It begins with a new visual language to paint the organic movements of the orchards and olive groves on the wild mountains in the Umbria Region of Italy. My nearest neighbors were sheep herders, and I began to weave the fold of sheep into the landscape. Viewing the 13th century frescoes within the churches of Assisi, Siena, and Florence, and reading on the life of St. Francis and St. Clare, my artwork began to take on greater spiritual meaning, as the Cielo Velato, became thinner. The clouds begin to take on celestial imagery, still life works began to speak of a communal plate, and the narrative of St. Francis and St. Clare opened my artistic hand to a new expression of painting. As a full-time, professional abstract artist, Rachael Van Dyke draws inspiration from living off the grid in the Blue Ridge Mountains and from her travels abroad.