M c G O W A N   F I N E  A R T  
GALLERY     CONSULTING     FRAMING
10 Hills Avenue, Concord, New Hampshire 03301 | phone: (603) 225-2515 | fax:(603) 225-7791 | email: art@mcgowanfineart.com

  Corporate Art Consulting

  Gallery Exhibits

  Artists

  Portrait Commissions

  Framing and Conservation

  Directions

  Home

Current Exhibit
Current Exhibit



Updated: 8.7.2007














Fr. JAMES PALMIGIANO

To the visitor or newcomer a day in the monastery may appear to have a seamless, uncluttered beauty and perfect orderliness. The monastery is beautiful and our day has a rhythm and formality. As monks we know that as we seek to be faithful in work, in prayer and in fraternal relationship, we very often arrive at a place of vulnerability born of a somewhat bitter self-knowledge. We learn that the monastic life is not about our achievement but about our readiness to make our weakness available to the mercy of God. Perhaps this is our most important work- to realize that we are in desperate need of this mercy. At best we become accustomed to letting things fall apart, noticing the fragmentation that is inevitable, unavoidable and welcoming it as opportunity. In the end the harmony and integrity that we seek as monks can be ours because God desires to transform all that is fractured and broken in us into something whole and beautiful.

It seems clear that my work reflects my experience of life in the monastery. The apparent harmony of each piece is born of a process of adding and subtracting, organizing and rearranging in a search for balance, order and presence. Sometimes whole sections must be rubbed away, and the work seems to be ruined. The process of art making is about attentiveness, trying to bring order and make something out of what is confused and apparently hopeless.

McGowan Fine Art   10 Hills Ave., Concord, NH 03301  (603) 225-2515  fax (603) 225-7791
email
art@mcgowanfineart.com