'Creating Sacred Beauty' Explores the Hearts of Artists Honoring God

Can beauty really save the world?

On Jan. 7, Family Theater Productions launches Creating Sacred Beauty, just in time for Pope Francis’ 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope -– including his special Jubilee to Artists in February 2025.

What Is Creating Sacred Beauty About?

Premiering on FTP's YouTube channel, with new episodes on subsequent Tuesdays, Creating Sacred Beauty explores how art stirs us, no matter our upbringing, creed, religion, or personal taste ... and how Catholic sacred art lifts our minds to the divine, as we seek beauty and meaning.

Series host Katia Villanueva uncovers what makes sacred art, and art oriented towards the act of worship, special, through interviews with Catholic creators about how faith informs their creativity.

Episodes focus on painter Lalo Garcia, author Lisa Hendey, stained-glass artist David Judson, liturgical-furnishings builder Jefferson Tortorelli, graphic artist and animator Ximena Palencia, and singer/musical director Bryan Roach.

Will Beauty Save the World?

Producer for Creating Sacred Beauty is FTP's Alan Hewitt, a 2023 graduate of John Paul the Great Catholic University, with a B.S. in Communications Media, emphasis in Film Production and Directing.

Asked about Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky's famous saying, "Beauty will save the world," he agrees, saying, "People are drawn to beauty because it is something that isn't utilitarian.

"You could say there is a useful aspect to beauty, but it's not in and of itself something we're using as a tool immediately to achieve an end. It's pleasing, and because we are drawn to that, we know beauty from what is not beauty, and we know, I think, instinctually what is right from what is wrong.

"It's not always that simple, but if you can recognize something beautiful, you're drawn to something good, and if you're drawn to something good, you're one step closer to saving the world."

Just doing the series has also had an effect on Hewitt.

"Everybody's got their own story," he says, "and so to be able to hear these artists' stories has been so entertaining and rewarding.

"It makes you think just about how beautiful it is to work in an artistic field as a filmmaker, and to be able to work together with your team and with the skills that come along with that, to make something beautiful, and so it's art, collaborating with art.

"That's been really, really rewarding, and I think as a filmmaker, I'm drawn to that kind of filmmaking that is trying to highlight beauty in some sense, not just in the way it looks, but in the story and the people.

"This series just lends itself to that so easily, which was a real gift."

How Faith Affects Artists and Their Art

Host Villanueva is herself an artist, but on the stage, and she can relate with the effect faith can have on art, and vice versa, saying "Every single one of these artists mentioned to me how something that stuck to them about our faith, and it changed them, it affected them positively, and I feel like that's how God works.

"He got to me, to my faith, through theater, and maybe that's how they get got to them as well. And I think that's just very beautiful, and you can see how God really works."

Faith, Art, and the Audience

Although the artists may have God in mind during the creative process, but that doesn't mean that those viewing the works have to be in that same frame of mind to enjoy them ... but you never know where it will lead.

Says Palencia, "If the artist tries to put a little bit of their faith in their artwork, it starts a conversation with the audience, and maybe they learn something about their faith or about the Catholic Church that they didn't know before. And I see that people usually are very good with accepting this type of art.

"And everyone's looking for the truth, for beauty, for God. For example, a young Catholic could be thinking that he's the only one who goes to church or something. But then when he sees artists posting about their faith, it can be an encouragement for them to practice their faith."

Hewitt concurs, saying, "It's beautiful for its own sake, it also serves a purpose and a function in the space that it's in, in worship and contemplation and prayer.

"All of the artists, regardless of where they were as far as what their religious life was like, mention something about this just a special reward.

"There's something meaningful and fulfilling in being able to use your work for that and know that, when it leaves your hands and goes to that space, wherever it is, it's continuing to produce tenfold in a way that's now beyond your control, but you got that ball rolling, if you will."

Click here for the series' official website, here to subscribe to Family Theater Productions' YouTube channel, and here to learn more about the Jubilee of Artists, taking place Feb. 16-18.

Here's the trailer for Creating Sacred Beauty:

And here's the first episode:

Image: Lalo Garcia at work/Family Theater Productions