Beauty is not a luxury.

Guest post from Deirdre Folley, John's wife and studio manager.

During the current crisis, perhaps you've heard from sources in the Art community that Art is now "more important than ever." I've received this line in my inbox from museums and galleries, institutions with special offers aiming to counteract the threat of isolation, loneliness, and meaninglessness.

In a time when millions of people are suffering unemployment, families are grieving the loss of loved ones, and experts in science and medicine are working double-overtime looking for solutions, is Art more important than ever?

Somehow, for me, this message was falling flat. 

My reaction surprised me, since art is my husband's business and I try to represent John's artwork to you and the rest of the world. Do I not believe in what we're doing here? 


At the same time that I was hearing from institutions in the art world, I was also hearing encouragement from some of you: friends and patrons, people who actively support what John is doing. But what I've heard from you has been different in a key way. The message in this community has been, "please keep doing what you do, because beauty is more important than ever" (my emphasis). 

That's when it struck me that the reason that the museum curators and gallery owners weren't really reaching me with their line was because of this very tension: today, throughout much of the Art World, Art does not align with Beauty. 

Moreover, even when the art itself is good and beautiful, the Art World tends to separate it from normal life and confine it to elite institutions, available only to a select group of adults who visit museums and attend gallery openings. While museum tours and gallery openings can be excellent, they represent the luxurious side of life rather than the essentially necessary.

But yes, we do need beauty more than ever. Beauty is not a luxury. That is why John does what he does. His aim is not to manipulate an audience with creative hijinks or even to produce works to end up in the sterile environment of a museum: he wants to produce works of beauty for you -- for patrons, for the public, and for the Church.

Just as we need the essential work of the people who provide food for our tables and the true and honest work of those who lay bricks for our buildings, so too do we need the work of those who put in the effort to produce works of beauty. In this way, although the Art World so frequently tends to the pretentious or the detached, the work of the true artist really is essential. 


After all, what would be the good of conquering every disease this world could brandish, if we did not have sources of beauty in our lives to lift our minds and hearts beyond? If we shelter ourselves from threats but don't seek to enrich the world with what is beautiful, we are not living life but merely surviving.
So thank you for your encouragement and for your support. John hopes to repay your hope in him with truly beautiful work to enrich the world for all of us. 


If you have never had the occasion to read John's Artist Statement, I hope you will take a moment to do so now.