Sacred Art Meditations

Seeing with the eyes of the heart

In an age when paintings are stored in vaults as investments and images are as disposable as the fast food wrappings they are printed on, we need to reconsider what the visual arts are all about. From the dawn of civilization, art-making had a special purpose. It was a way for humanity to express the inexpressible and give tangible form to a sense of the sacred. Whether prehistoric cave murals, Tibetan monastery sand paintings, or the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, works of art have always played a central role in meditation and worship, illuminating sacred words.

Imagery is especially important to Christians, who believe Jesus Christ is the Invisible God made visible in human form. Artists down the centuries from various cultures have interpreted the stories of the Bible, especially the Life of Christ,  in visual terms to deepen their understanding of these sacred narratives. We tend to look at religious imagery nowadays, removed from its frame. This website presents works from my sacred art collection with meditations and religious texts in ways, I hope, will bring image and story together, as they were meant to be, and help us to see once again with the eyes of the heart.

John A. Kohan