Forging the links between sacred and beautiful
“Divine Illuminations” exhibit of David Carter’s landscape work on display in RPI chapel
TROY – The Rensselaer Newman Chapel and Cultural Center, perched at the edge of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s campus, calls itself “a center for arts, culture and faith.” Home to Christ Sun of Justice Chapel, its thick, palegray walls approximate the contours of a church. Designed in a Modernist style that favors basic building materials and utilitarian simplicity — there’s n’er a flying buttress or spire in sight — its role as a spiritual sanctuary might not be readily apparent.
But that’s not how artist David Carter sees it. “I’ve been visiting the place for 30 years,” said Carter. “I’m attracted to its forwardthinking design and energy. To me, it has the feeling of early Romanesque architecture, with its massive stones, brickwork and small windows.”
Carter’s own spiritual yearnings can be seen in
“David Carter: Divine Illuminations,” on view at the Center through Jan.
30. The exhibition presents otherworldly, unpeopled New York landscapes that Carter intended as expressions of a holy presence, as well as a series of Stations of the Cross hanging in the sanctuary — nearly 50 works in all.
“I think David’s art has a very ethereal, dreamlike quality to it,” said Paulist Father Larry Rice, chaplain at Rensselaer Newman. “They can’t be identified with any one location. They have an idealized aesthetic.”
Rice said he has noticed visitors to the center taking time to go reflectively from piece to piece. “The art has reached people on a subconscious level,” he said.
This is the second show for Carter at the Center; the last was three years ago. “The response has been really good,” said Director Kevin Krolik, who worked with Carter on both exhibitions. “There are people coming through just to look at the art.”
Krolik said the show’s intent has been felt by viewers. “David definitely has a lot of pieces with an obvious spiritual nature to them,” he said, not
“David definitely has a lot of pieces with an obvious spiritual nature to them.” — Director Kevin Krolik
ing that the paintings are contributing to a healing ambiance in the space, which features a stained-glass oculus and a baptismal font.
Carter’s connection to the sacred goes beyond art. His home in nearby Waterford was built in the 1890s and served for 50 years as a Methodist church. Carter himself is an interfaith minister who christened his residence “The Interfaith Center of the Arts.” Most days, he wakes up, feeds his cats St. Tigernach and St. Fintan (a.k.a. Tigger and Fin), named for early Irish saints, makes coffee and gets ready to paint.
Carter’s art-making process itself is a spiritual practice. “I do things in a methodical and ritualistic way, like a medieval monk would,” he said. First, he washes and dries his canvas. Then he blesses it in a prayer ritual and meditates. “I try to let go of preconceived notions and give it to the Divine.” Only then does he take up his brush, often painting for 12 hours a day and sometimes much longer. “As long as I’m painting, I don’t feel the pain,” he said.
Carter’s pain is the result of the many difficult medical conditions and treatments he has endured over his nearly six decades. It began at age 5 when he needed a tracheotomy to deal with a rare form of croup, followed by an operation to restore his voice box. “I had to learn to talk again,” Carter said.
In the past seven years alone, he has had seven operations, including open heart surgery and, this past year, a Whipple procedure for pancreatic cancer, accompanied by many rounds of chemotherapy. Art, he says, has helped get him through it all. “I leave my body when I’m painting,” he said.
Carter, who was raised on Long Island, has exhibited at numerous galleries and museums, including the Nassau County Museum, Grey Art Gallery at New York University, Elaine Benson Gallery in Bridgehampton and the Capital Art Center in Troy. Several New York Catholic colleges have shown his paintings, including Siena College in Loudonville, Maria College in Albany and Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry.
In addition to art-making, Carter is a licensed reflexologist and massage therapist who has worked as a consultant to spas and resorts around the country, taught art and art history at the university level and served as registrar at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.
When Carter was young, his great-grandparents had a farm in Livingston Manor in Sullivan County. Their neighbors were artists Elaine and Willem de Kooning, who recognized Carter’s talent and mentored him. “Elaine was a tough teacher,” Carter recalls. “She was rough. Willem was sweet and kind. He had an Old Master quality.”
Carter went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in art, art history and political science from SUNY Cortland and two master’s degrees from LIU Post — one in art and art history and the other in education and technology.
Carter paints a variety of subjects, often as part of a series — celebrities, writers, cowboys, saints, angels, flowers — whatever catches his interest in the moment.
“My faith allows that there are always new discoveries and they’re never an accident,” he said. “I’ve been blessed with the education and skills to render whatever the Divine message conveys.”