AMATA'S MISSION
“The beauty of the arts, they have value, and we can often refer to beauty as the spearhead of evangelization, but it’s pointing to something deeper. And that which is deeper is what we are more deeply made for…[Art] is ordered to the beauty of belonging, and [to] inviting persons to the beauty of family and, ultimately, home to the embrace of the Trinity” (Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR).
These simple words struck a chord in my heart and have guided my study and practice of sacred art. When I first heard Fr. Mark-Mary Ames say these words on the Blessed Is She podcast, I recognized the heart given to my own work. Studying art is not an end in itself. Instead, it is ordered to the end that is the beauty of belonging. My desire for this work is that it may be a drop in the ocean of Divine Love and a note in the Divine love song to each precious soul. I want to invite persons to the beauty of family and, ultimately, home to the embrace of the Trinity.
Our culture yearns for beauty and meaning as a balm to a broken world. Because the physical and spiritual are intrinsically bound in man, surrounding people with a cult of ugliness is deeply disruptive. When our sense of beauty is deformed, goodness and truth are more easily distorted. If art follows the abusive traditions of destruction, it glorifies a blaring discord that speaks only of isolation and despair. Our spirits will be beaten down and broken. We will forget the deepest truth of who we are. If a cult of ugliness and destruction is all that we know, we will be more easily divorced from our deepest identity as beloved. We will be blinded to the hope and high beauty that is forever beyond the reach of darkness.
The truth is that every person, unique and unrepeatable, is a precious one of the finite number of persons who will ever be created. Not one is inconsequential. Not one can ever be thrown away. Every lost or lonely or hurting one is a heart-rending tragedy. And each one is beloved - an intentional and unrepeatable delight to the Heart of the Maker.
If through this work I can invite even one soul to deeper intimacy with the One who knows them most deeply and if even one heart chooses to open a hairsbreadth more to the Lord who upholds their very existence I will count as a glory and a gift every second and every stroke spent in this work.
You are beloved. And the One who calls you Beloved is with you. Always.
MEET THE ARTIST
Sapphira Sinasac was born and raised near Ottawa, Ontario. In 2016, she began to study the liberal arts at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College. In 2019, she was granted a Bachelor degree in Catholic Studies, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a double concentration in literature and theology.
During her time at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College, Sapphira was introduced to the Sacred Art School Firenze, an international workshop school in Tuscany which is dedicated to training a new generation of sacred artists according to the techniques taught in Renaissance ateliers. This school’s mission of carrying forward skills built on tradition in order to encounter the contemporary world with new figurative artwork rooted in the Incarnational reality seemed the natural next step to follow Sapphira’s study of the liberal arts.
In 2021, Sapphira was delighted to be among the first students of the Sacred Art School’s inaugural one-year Professional Master program in Sacred Art, studying figurative oil painting techniques under the guidance of contemporary professional artists. In November 2021, Sapphira graduated the Masters program with full marks after enjoying an extraordinary six months of study, friendship and life rapt in the beauty and history of lovely Florence.