Art is a communion

It occurred to me last night in a conversation with two other artists that for many of us art is a reaching out to the world, to reality and to the ideal we are longing for not a 'teaching' about goodness, truth and beauty. This isn't to say that that which we seek in art is not being expressed as goodness, truth and beauty. It is the experience, the feeling of being close to the Spirit as we come in contact with our longing and that for which we long and because of this experience, this religious experience, (for that it what it is) our artwork is able to be a vehicle. I think this is the source of art--our longing for our 'true home', as Christopher Derrick so rightly puts it. It is precisely this point which ought to inspire us artists who are Catholics to encourage, seek out and create an exchange between us and the Church who is our 'motherland', our home.