A Barrie Ontario artist plans to put her talents and creativity to work in promoting pro-life efforts.
Colleen Nagle, a part-time art teacher at Sacred Heart High School of the York Region Separate School Board, may donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of limited edition prints to support the Canadian pro-life effort.
This means $25 or every $125 print sold could go directly to pro-life work.
The prints convey a global, life-affirming theme of birth and regeneration.
Entitled “a Moment in Creation,” the print symbolizes the hands of God presenting the yet unborn Jesus Christ to the world. “I have long been aware of what goes on with the unborn child as they are being formed,” Colleen told The Interim. “I thought it perfectly natural to link my artwork to the pro-life theme.”
A calligrapher and illustrator as well as watercolour artist, Colleen believes A Moment in Creation has a universal appeal. The work is the artist’s representation of how each human life has special significance to the Creator.
This isn’t the first time Colleen has attempted to use her artistic talents in support of positive causes. Last fall, she offered a series of Scripture prints for sale with a portion of the proceeds going in support of “those who minister to the needs of God’s people globally.”
Colleen believes that whole not everyone is blessed with the sensitivity of an artist, people can find new ways of looking at God’s creation through art.
As she told The Catholic Register newspaper last fall, “I realized that my sensitivity to the needs of others has formed a life-ling prayer. I have asked Jesus to bless the work of my hands so that many lives may be touched in the sale of my pro-life prints.”
For Colleen, art is not only a means of relaxation, but a way to express truth and beauty in vivid new ways. And without putting too fine a point on the matter, art for Colleen is a form a prayer. It enables her to grasp spiritual themes and to express them for people who might not otherwise appreciate their subtlety.
“I have come to realize that an artist’s perception of the world differs from to so-called non-artist,” Colleen told The Catholic Register.
“Having taught high school and given adult workshops to reawaken natural creative abilities, I have concluded that every human being has the chance to see as an artist sees. Not everyone will paint or sculpt, but taught to use the right hemisphere of the brain, sense are heightened in a new way of looking at God’s creation.”
Colleen’s art and the special empathy she shares with preborn children could help convince others of the uniqueness and sanctity of all life.
If people are to accept that an artist has a gift for bringing a new perspective on matters of truth and beauty, then pro-life art could help increase awareness of the continuum of life from the moment of conception until natural death.
To Colleen, artistic ability is another way of serving God with our talent.
