I've been thinking a lot lately about how much need there is for great Catholic art in this century.
For years I've been brainstorming band projects that are really morality plays. I think this project is much more complex than a morality play, but I do think we've got a chance at filling a huge void in the art world by doing something that uses the tropes of postmodernism in service of Catholicism.
I don't think any art critics realize that Catholic art is still happening.
I'm not sure there is much contemporary Catholic art that doesn't suck. I think a lot of it makes people who are ready to return to the Church run screaming. The 70's and 80's were a bad time for church and retreat center design, I tells ya. We might actually be groundbreakers doing Catholic conceptual/performance art. I know you've said in the past your art hasn't consistently been particularly Catholic, and neither has mine, but what are the odds that two devout Catholics, who are both teachers, artists, and alumni of the same university, would start collaborating when we did?
We had a thousand chances to make music together in college and it didn't happen once. And now it does? And why didn't all this incredible music you've been stockpiling for years take off earlier? It's certainly amazing stuff. It feels like we're being offered some grace here, and I feel like making the most of it.
I'm not saying let's be as obvious and abrasive as morality plays are. I think there's a universal appeal to the story. But I think the story does confront the problems of existence in the postmodern age and especially critiques the problem of American Catholics attempting to serve both secular society and the Kingdom of God. Arthur White probably would have found instant sainthood if he lived in the Middle Ages.
Maybe we can help reshape our culture to encourage sainthood. Maybe that's the whole idea behind getting everybody to contribute to this music.
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