Visualizing climate change

Laudato Si Art Exhibit

Posted by Vonn

In celebration of Earth Day 2023, Artist A. Vonn Hartung unveiled his latest art exhibit,

“LAUDATO SI – Care for our Common Home,”

Featuring eight major works, A.Vonn Hartung's exhibit at San Ignacio Church in San Juan Puerto Rico captures the essence and spirit of Pope Francis's encyclical, which calls for global attention to the urgent need for environmental stewardship and climate action.
Laudato Si Art Exhibit

In celebration of Earth Day, artist A.Vonn Hartung unveiled his latest art exhibit, “Expressions of Pope Francis’s Encyclical on Climate Change: LAUDATO SI – Care for our Common Home,” at San Ignacio Church in San Juan, on Saturday, April 22, 2023. Featuring eight major works, Hartung’s exhibit aimed to capture the essence and spirit of Pope Francis’s encyclical, which calls for global attention to the urgent need for environmental stewardship and climate action. The visually stunning and thought-provoking artworks served as a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and each other.

The event featured distinguished speakers, including Sister Lissette Avilés Rios, OP, Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves’s Delegate of his Ministry of Ecology, and Gredia Huerta Montañez, MD, FAAP. Dr. Huerta is the President of the American Academy of Pediatrics of Puerto Rico President and co-founder of Puerto Rico Clinicians for Climate Action, and Executive member and Co-Founder of the Council on Environmental Health and Climate Change.

Attendees had the opportunity to hear from the artist, A. Vonn Hartung, as he discussed the inspiration and creative process behind his works. The event was an enlightening and inspiring experience for all who attended, as well as a chance to reflect on the crucial role we all play in protecting our common home.

The centerpiece “Thy will be done” painted in 1992, has visited many churches in the metro area. It asks the viewer—
Which future—in harmony with God or in disharmony, shall we live? The carving Eve and Adam began with the covid pandemic and led to the other paintings— all express aspects of Climate Change.

 

Oil painting on wood panel, 42 x 57", by AVonnHartung. The painting is rhetorical in concept and presents us with two possibilities: one in harmony with God's Creation, a future of justice, peace and sustainability. The other of plunder, chaos, endless war and an ultimate collapse of nature and life on our planet home as we know it.
Thy Will be Done

Taken from our Lord’s prayer— (Matthew 6:10), the title is rhetorical—it asks which future shown in the painting do we want for ourselves and our children’s future? With God’s Sacred Creation in Harmony, and Health? Or in our dysfunctional, chaotic, Dystopia? God gave us Freewill, so the choice is ours. Let us repent and change our ways.

Read more about this painting

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Eve and Adam, a pandemic woodcarving by A.Vonn Hartung
Eve and Adam

With the Global Pandemic, I felt we were in a Garden of Eden Moment of Time, and I must do a carving. And I knew it would need to be a carving that would speak to the Pandemic, but also that which I believe brought on the Pandemic—an imbalance in the mode in which we live with Nature, the destruction of the cosmos! Impending climate collapse! Thinking of the Future—Mothers and children came to mind. Hence the title “Eve and Adam” which expresses the wisdom of Human Love over Material Profit. The Question is, are we—the Human Species—continuing to cause this imbalance and if so, can we correct it? This Question is the essence of the message of the carving. 

Eve and Adam, closeup detail of pandemic woodcarving by A.Vonn Hartung
Eve and Adam (closeup detail)

We see our modern-day Adam pondering this question shown more as his temptation—recalling the original story of the Garden of Eden. To answer this the parable of The Garden of Eden and the forbidden fruit speak to us here and now as we find ourselves in A Garden Moment of Time. God, we pray— help us to be Wise!

Read the poem by the artist.

 

Zacchaeus in the painting by A.Vonn Hartung, as in the Bible (Lk 19:1-10), is a sinner of ill-gotten wealth. He knows his guilt but also wants to know Jesus. So he climbs a tree to see Jesus, but at a safe distance. But Jesus knows him and calls him to come down, forgives him, and Zacchaeus changes his LIFE and is SAVED.
Zacchaeus (Lk 19)

We take the lesson of the rich man Zacchaeus, wealth attained from dubious means, welcomed by Jesus as a sign of redemption. Zacchaeus in the painting, as in the Bible (Lk 19:1-10), is a sinner of ill-gotten wealth. He knows his guilt but also wants to know Jesus. So he climbs a tree to see Jesus, but at a safe distance. But Jesus knows him and calls him to come down, forgives him, and Zacchaeus changes his LIFE and is SAVED.

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Fishers of Men is 30 x 36-inch acrylic painting by A.Vonn Hartung, dedicated to all First Responders
Fishers of Men

Fishers of Men (Matthew 4:19) are 1st Responders. They are the heroes that show up first when there’s a tragedy, where people are in danger of losing their lives or losing their souls. They are not only firemen, policemen and soldiers, but also You and Me who help make a better world. They, with great Humility, are our Priests and Nuns who with the Saints save Souls, hear our confessions, lead our communities in Faith, settle differences between us, and face with us the dangers and solutions to climate change. God Bless Them All!

Read the poem by the artist.

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The Magi Return as Angels to reflect our Creator’s Gift of “Our Common Home”. A painting by A.Vonn Hartung
The Magi Return as Angels

The three Magi who brought gifts to our Lord and savior baby Jesus, now as Angels return and bring Us their greatest gift, shown in the mirrors they hold— the Reality that We are One Integral piece of the Living Cosmic Puzzle we call Earth, “Our Common Home.” God created Earth, for all his creation. “For God so loved the world he gave His only begotten son.” Earth is ours to live in and to share. It is not ours to trash! In Christ we pray.

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The Wounded Dove, a painting by A.Vonn Hartung is a visible metaphor showing how we are damaging our Common Home, planet Earth.
The Wounded Dove

The painting Wounded Dove is a visible metaphor showing how we are damaging “Our Common Home” Planet Earth. The most sacred, precious, and delicate of all our symbols is the Dove. Here we see her wounded, bleeding crippled in her nest. Her Mate tends to her, as indigenous people look on with compassion, for they know what it is to be wounded. In the background and all around we see how we are abusing God’s Sacred Creation. Lord, help us to Heal Your Gift of Earth, “Our Common Home.”

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The Melting North, a painting by A.Vonn Hartung, showing polar bears stranded on a floating piece of ice as a consequence of the climate crisis.
The Melting North

The painting The Melting North expresses the reality and denial of what we know, but the reality of how we are suppressing our needed reaction as glaciers melt. We, like in the painting, tend to want to be on the cruise ship observing but moving away from the reality of the melting north. In God we pray for the faith and the courage to act. How is it that we can love and feel the Suffering of People and vulnerable life so far away? It is because God has linked us all together like the embrace of a Beautiful Flowering Vine, and that we are All Linked in His Sacred Creation so that what we do for others or do to others we also do to ourselves. We pray for the awakening of our consciousness to the realities that we face and the love that binds God’s creation together. We pray!

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Climate Refugees, a painting by A.Vonn Hartung, shows wandering refugees leaving their homeland.
Climate Refugees

The painting Climate Refugees shows wandering refugees leaving their destroyed homeland. Exhausted, wounded, searching simply for a place to live. Behind them are the endless galaxies of Infinite Space with the Chimneys of Creation known to us by the NASA Hubble telescope.  In the mid-ground the eroding rocks look sympathetic although decrepit due to a dissolving world. There is Hope, however—as leading the way amongst the goats, is the “Lamb of God” bringing them out of Climate Collapse and into a healthy and sustainable future. Christ help us.

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Deviled Eggs

Posted by Vonn

I dedicate this painting and poem, “Deviled Eggs”, in memorial to all the brave souls who have died sacrificing their lives for a better world.

As part of my series “Cry of Creation” this work focuses and shines a light on the existential and spiritual threat we face as humanity confronts our own extraordinary power to tip the climate into an imbalance that threatens the future of the world as we know it. We are all important and all uniquely indispensable! Yes—You and Me!

The truth IS, God gathers, the devil scatters!

Deviled Eggs

Mammon (Devil of Greed) would deceive us saying—
“We’re entitled! All on Earth is ours for the taking!”
then turn and make our world an Omelet of Deviled Eggs!

From the spoils of our addiction,
to profits quarterly earned,
is spun the myth of Utopia!
While Greed clear-cuts timber,
and ancient forests burn

Priceless black blood lies in the womb of our Sacred Earth.
The Blood of Dinosaurs and giant Ferns.
As we—Sucking-up on it
like Mother’s Milk—
We as Combustion Burn!

The myth of endless growth
slurps up— “me thinks”
the broth of Sacred Life,
eons ago gone Extinct.

Yet we reward extravagantly reckless greed.
We make no shame, but tribute pay,
to those who would pay-out our future lives away.
To what extent and how far down
are we drilling and willing to ignore,
the council of our Wisdom
that makes up Freedom’s Core.

What has blinded our good sense?
That binds us to our folly.
knowing it will be at our future world’s expense.

What has hobbled our humility and morphed it into Pride?
Who has turned us off our path and broken up our stride?

We sing and shout the chant of Mammon
“If I can buy it, it’s mine! If I can do it, I will!

Oh Stupid! Oh, Self-Deceived Fallen One
We follow!
Down our hole we Go?

No! Let us ransom our Earthly Mother—
from out the skillet—set her free!
So she can spin and twirl in dance,
Blue Mother Dancing Free!

Lord God has let us ride through this our space and time,
a ride given to us FREE.
It’s where Earth has always been for us
and where She always wants to be.

A.Vonn Hartung © 2022

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Fishers of Men

Posted by Vonn

I dedicate this Painting and Poem to all First Responders.
All people who are Suffering
or Acting to live in Balance with our Climate,
who strive for the good of others
and Future Generations…

 

Fishers of Men

Fishers of Men go out further than any boat can know.
They sail over the shoals and rocks, where no others dare to go!

They fish with nets of Mercy in seas and oceans drag,
for those who’ve lost their footing and off the decks were dragged.

They troll in lakes of poison, in rivers clogged with slime
to pull aboard the wretched that Sin has rendered blind.
They scoop up the fragile and their kind, that hold fast to the line of flotsam and jetsam
that hope has left behind!

They surf the tides of turmoil and teach no fear of death.
They rise in swells of innocence until clear knowing builds and crests.

Fishers of men, fish for Souls, Souls that lose their way,
those who’ve sunk below the pale,
who in the deep of muck and dark, in the bottom lay.

Fishers of Men are Saviors!
Compassion, Love, and Mercy are how they reach so deep.
Following the Savior they’ve learned “Saving Grace” comes through Faith,
Humility and Penance in Redemption is forgiveness.
It is the Master’s Way, the Truth and the Life.

So as they Fish they teach us the Way to Pray, which is to say,
fish to save, for ALL on Earth are fragile and ALL on Earth need us to Pray,
to Serve, so in our own turn—We may save
and with our Savior stay …

A.Vonn Hartung ©2022

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Eve and Adam—a pandemic carving

Posted by Vonn

When the pandemic was announced in early March 2020 we were ordered to Lock-down in Quarantine.

As a professional woodcarver, and not knowing how long we would be quarantined, I realized I need to do a woodcarving—carving has always acted as a grounding effect for me.

And I knew it would need to be a carving that would speak to the Pandemic, but also that which I believe brought on the Pandemic—an imbalance in the mode in which we live with Nature, the destruction of the cosmos! Impending climate collapse!

The Question is, are we—the Human Species—continuing to cause this imbalance and if so, can we correct it?

 

This Question is the essence of the message of the carving. 

 We see our modern-day Adam pondering this question shown more as his temptation—recalling the original story of the Garden of Eden.

To answer this the parable of The Garden of Eden and the forbidden fruit speak to us here and now as we find ourselves in A Garden Moment of Time.

Eve and Adam

“Our Garden Moment”

Time was we thought right from wrong,
was caused by what Adam did
for lack of judgment less than strong.

But since we left the Garden
we’ve wandered and we’ve strayed,
off the straight and narrow,
off the path we’ve paved.

Seems some still hold the feeling
that it should not be them to shame—
But that “surely it was the Other.”
So they invented Blame.

So they reject the garden story
along with forbidden trees.
They see no problem in doing anything
they “Damn Well Please!”

Now our Modern Adam
has quite a powerful Thrust.
Cause with nods from his Investors
it is “In Him they Trust”

So it’s come and so it goes
so many times around.
It’s made us all quite dizzy
and scrambled Sacred ground.

So now We stand-in with Eve and Adam,
but this time we’re ALL around,
looking up once again.
But knowing the Forbidden Fruit
still is mostly underground.

But now the truth stands out for us,
for all of us to see,
where once were lies, it’s clear,
spoken in whispers, OH so low,
whispered in one man’s ear.

So with Eve we tremble,
as our new Adam eyes what may be reason,
for the last time that we Fall.
And again mistakes
in thinking of no consequence
if he listens to The Snake.

Our Eve cries out “Listen to us Mothers
and Will-be Mothers, for little time is left.
Hear our voice, it is our choice
to birth and bear our kin.
Who if worthy of Us,
will do for those who follow,
what WE now do for Them.”

For it was before, we little thought
beyond our children and theirs.
Now we must “In God we Trust”
be the bridge for all our children’s
future tomorrows…

A.VonnHartung 2022

 

View the video—

Ecologist Nick Brokaw introduces Vonn and his pandemic woodcarving Eve and Adam

The Fate of Jonah

Posted by Vonn

Fate of Jonah is a painting by A.VonnHartung, from his series "Cries of Creation" inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment "Laudato Si".

The Fate of Jonah

The Fate of Jonah is a painting and sonnet from my new series “Cries of Creation”, inspired by Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si“

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Jonah was a good man from the start

for he saw beauty in all things that lived,

and knew he was of it a part.

He was with God, he lived, he loved and prayed.

 

Then one day God tested him! This is what He said—

Go to Nineveh, for there they’ve strayed in sin.

And tell them how they’ve lost their way.

And teach them how to live, to love and pray.

 

Now Jonah’s knees began to shake,

like a mighty mountain began to quake.

 

And Jonah that night ran away

on a ship whose course was far apart

from where he knew he should depart

to do what he knew was right.

 

But doubt and fear had closed his heart.

And greed and self-interest had closed his ears.

 

The fate of Jonah we must heed

for his redemption is our great need.

To do God’s will and change our ways,

for now it’s us who’ve gone astray.

 

Only fools run from God and try to slink away!

 

Those of us who were good to start,

who have the sight, who have the heart,

help us Lord not to turn away, but let us turn

and face our fate and know our place.

And live and love and pray!

 

Ships of Fools

Posted by Vonn

"Ships of Fools" is a painting and sonnet by A.VonnHartung, from his series "Cries of Creation", inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical on the environmental crisis "Laudato Si"

Ships of Fools

Ships of Fools is a painting and sonnet from my new series “Cries of Creation”, inspired by Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si“

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We do not know where fools’ ships go,

for all they tell are lies.

Their Captains have no course nor maps.

They only sail where blows the wind,

and only at their backs.

 

The captains’ futures are all invested.

In the market they do rely.

No thoughts of destination nor direction,

for on the Big Board they have their eye.

 

Ni port nor starboard do they veer,

nor course corrections do they dare

while in the current of their winnings.

 

But, if Mammon-wish tickles their fancy,

quickly will their trading shift.

Or if by chance they be becalmed,

then happily will they daze and drift.

 

Their crews are drifters all,

 from the sea the captains plucked.

Their losses and misfortunes

are the foolish captains’ luck.

 

The passengers all are gamblers.

These ships are what they sought.

Cheap one-way tickets

are what they scrambled for and bought.

 

All good one-time married men,

left their wives behind—

knowing, like some good husbands,

they thought it would be kind.

 

For on these one-way foolish ships,

ships with no return,

there is no need to bother, ponder, or discern.

Foolish ships are bound to flip,

for black holes they are bound!

It is their way

when gone astray

that fools do double down!

 

Let us learn again to sail

the oceans with her winds.

And tack, when need be,

so when the wind swings round

we yield, to her lead.

 

To keep on course, we cannot force

Nature to do our will.

Our destiny is to bend and mend our ways.

The signs are all around us

all the time, numerous as the waves.

 

It’s only fools who sail on ships

 captained without a course,

ships that sail to nowhere!

Of this I cry BEWARE!

 

 

Visualizing “Laudato Si'”

Posted by Vonn

Visualizing “Laudato Si'”

 I recently received an email from a theology graduate student at the College of St. Elizabeth in Morristown New Jersey. Eileen Connor Callahan stated that she was writing about the correlations between Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical Laudato Si’ On Care for our Common Home and my painting On Earth as it is in Heaven: through Him all things were made Jn 1:3 (shown here). Indeed she was visualizing “Laudato Si'” through my painting. For this purpose she went on to ask me a few questions for her paper and slideshow.  She presented them in early December 2018.

Visualizing Laudato Si' I painted this work 26 years ago, and it’s more relevant now than ever before! I now see it as an aid to visualizing “Laudato Si'”.

Certainly, I was inspired because of the deteriorating environmental conditions on this most delicate island, Puerto Rico. Unquestionably Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’ On Care for our Common Home spelled out the environmental problems on a global scale.

Its message was loud and clear!

Undeniably, its message is clear and eloquently stated. Hence, it is a theological clarification of what the science reveals to us. Furthermore, for me Hurricane Maria brought it all into focus!

Some folks think we as an industrial society and economic system have little to do with causing climate change/global warming. But what parents would gamble on their children’s lives and future generations if there is a possibility that we can do our best to protect God’s sacred creation?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have become aware that most Catholics/Christians have not read Laudato Si’, let alone studied the encyclical. It is clearly written and elegantly concise. What’s more, Pope Francis has quoted popes going back to Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI as well as the research of the most eminent international scientists renown in their fields. But unfortunately it is not being discussed as a prioritized issue in our churches or society in general.

This painting points to Laudato Si’ which spells out in everyday language both the environmental and spiritual crisis we are facing.

READ A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF THIS PAINTING

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Read Eileen’s paper EileenPaper_On Earth as it is In Heaven