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June 2007 Issue
Woman's faith expressed through her
art
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While she talks, Foley picks up a drawing
pad and a mechanical pencil and begins to sketch. At
that moment, Helen Foley, the religious artist, emerges.
For her, every creative stroke represents the written
word in her personal faith journal – documenting her
personal walk with God. |
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Foley’s art and faith are fi rmly entwined
today, but her artistic and faith journeys began on two separate
paths – at two very different times in her life. Born in Detroit,
Foley was raised in the Grand Rapids area. At about age 12,
her father, Edwin Graf, a college professor who taught engineering,
math and drafting, gave young Helen her artistic start. “I
think he realized painting was my bent,” Foley recalls. “I
never had any formal education in art. My dad just put a set
of paintbrushes in my hand, put some books in my hands and
pretty much gave me direction.” Like most young girls, Foley
enjoyed drawing and painting horses. Then she started painting
people’s faces and a new world of artistic expression emerged.
“I enjoy painting faces. People’s faces can
change a lot and I can look at a person’s face and see many
faces,” she added. Today, one can see very detailed expressions
on the faces of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as well as on the religious
icons she creates. But the inspiration for those religious
paintings would not come until after her conversion to Catholicism,
a conversion that started with rock-hard resistance. The journey
from Baptist to Catholic Raised as a Baptist, Helen met and
fell in love with Jim Foley, a Catholic whose family attended
St. Alphonsus Parish in Grand Rapids. As part of marriage
preparation, Jim brought Helen to the St. Alphonsus rectory
to meet the pastor. “I still remember the fi rst time he took
me. My heels were dug in so strong you probably can still
see the marks I left,” she recalls with a slight smile. “And
Father gave me a catechism and asked me to study the fi rst
two chapters and come back with some questions. Well, I came
back with a volume of questions.” Helen began to watch Jim
practice his faith, once even going to the church to wait
for Jim as he went to confession.
It was during that visit when Helen would
see something that would leave an indelible mark on her conversion
to the Catholic faith. “When we got to the church, I saw a
man sitting in the last row of the church and he was falling
down drunk,” she said. “Having been raised a Baptist, my fi
rst thoughts were – there is your Catholic Church, you can
get drunk, come in and have your sins forgiven, and just go
right back out and do it again. “When we went back for our
visit with Father, I told him about it. And he asked me: ‘Where
would you rather see the man. This man may have been at church
looking for his way out of his own private hell.’ That made
me think, I had sins, probably not so obvious, but very much
against the laws of God. That drunken man taught me a lesson.
If I could point to him and think he was unworthy to come
into church, than how worthy am I? It was an eye opener.”
Nearly six decades since she saw that man in the pew, Helen
continues to pray for him. “He has become very dear to me,”
she said. “I pray in hopes that he completed his journey from
that terrible time in his life.” A television show inspires
an artist Foley joined the Catholic Church and married Jim
58 years ago, raising their six children in the faith. She
continued to paint, but it would take another enlightening
moment to launch a spiritual growth that would inspire her
to paint sacred images. “One Mother’s Day I was watching [a
local Catholic] television show and there was a story of a
woman who had raised a rather large family on her own. Each
of those children went on to be very successful in life. “They
were interviewing her about her success as a mother. And the
reporter asked the question, ‘Which child do you care for
the most?’ As a mother, I was prepared for the answer: ‘I
care for all of them equally.’ But then she surprised me by
saying, ‘The one hurting the most, then the one most in need,
and then the one furthest from home.’ That was so profound
to me.
It was then I painted ‘The Holy Family’ (page
18). I felt so strongly that everything should center on the
family. And that was the very beginning of my religious paintings.”
There is profound imagery in each of her works. Each detail
has a signifi cant meaning. In ‘The Holy Family,’ the hands
of Jesus, Mary and Joseph are the central focus and demonstrate
important elements about the Holy Family. Joseph tenderly
and gently supports the infant Jesus with a big strong hand.
Jesus’ little hand clings to Joseph’s cloak, near the heart.
And Mary’s left hand blesses the strong ties between Jesus
and Joseph. “When you view her paintings very closely, you
can see the brush strokes and the incredible detail, it’s
just unbelievable,” said Father Joseph W. Kenshol, pastor
of Mary Queen of Apostles Church in Sand Lake, where Helen
is a parishioner and also where she helped restore statues
of Jesus and Mary. “Just something as simple as the shading
of the face has been done beautifully.” Her paintings also
include other subtle elements, such as family ties and images.
In “The Holy Family” painting, Mary is shown doing needlepoint.
The pattern of the needlepoint mirrors the needlepoint Helen
was working on for her daughter’s wedding. In The Compassionate
Heart of Saint Joseph, an angel can be seen with his arms
outstretched toward Joseph in the foreground of the painting.
Helen’s model for the angel was her grandson Mark, a toddler
at the time the piece was painted, who unwittingly posed for
the piece while playing in a bathtub. The Compassionate Heart
of Saint Joseph, (page 18) one of Foley’s most notable paintings,
received the “nihil obstat” (meaning “nothing hinders”) and
imprimatur (meaning “let it be printed”) on May 10, 2005.
The “nihil obstat” indicates that the work has been examined
and approved by the censor of the diocese where the item is
to be published.
In this instance it was the Archdiocese of
Detroit, by Monsignor John P. Zenz. Cardinal Adam Maida gave
permission for the imprimatur, which indicates that the work
has been approved for printing. The art of prayer Although
for years she had thought of painting Saint Joseph, her inspiration
to paint The Compassionate Heart of Saint Joseph came from
the plight of a teenage boy who was the son of a friend living
in Detroit. “Back in the early 1970s, any heart surgery was
very risky.” Helen recalls. “And this young man was so very
afraid of the heart surgery he was facing that he even approached
his mother and asked her if it would be a mortal sin to jump
in front of a bus. “She told me about this and I drew a charcoal
picture of Saint Joseph for him. The painting was my prayer
for him.” The young man, who has kept the original work to
this day, survived the surgery. Soon after his surgery, Helen
was commissioned to create the same painting, but in a full-color,
full-sized picture for St. Joseph Church in Detroit. The painting
was displayed there for several years but currently is in
the possession of the discalced Carmelite Nuns in Parnell.
In addition to The Holy Family and The Compassionate Heart
of Saint Joseph, Helen’s portfolio of paintings also include
Jesus, Gift of the Eucharist; Mary, Mother of the Eucharist;
The Holy Father or Papa; Stay with Me, Lord; St. Francis;
Mother Teresa, I thirst; Heaven and Hell; We Three Kings and
All that Glitters. Those works and Helen’s personal story
continue to have an impact on others.
“Helen is a delightful person and is an inspiration
to our entire parish,” Father Kenshol said. “In addition to
her talent and her gift of art, her strong faith and the way
she bears up through the adversity of her own illness, to
keep smiling through ‘‘ all of it, is an inspiration to us
all.”
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