Bay Area Book Festival 2023

Books and prints on sale by Stefan Salinas - Sunday only!

https://www.baybookfest.org/outdoorfair/

Blessing of the USF Commission.

November 1, 2022. What a wonderful evening had by all, for the blessing of two paintings illuminating the concerns Pope Francis wrote about in Laudato Si': Our Common Home.
Three chaplains standing with my art: Rabbi Camille Shira Angel, Fr. Dónal Godfrey, and Rev. Ronné. The mural outside was designed and painted by 13 students, under the direction of Prof. Sergio De LaTorre.
https://www.stefansalinas.com/laudato-si/

New book in the works.

Step by step, a picture book is taking shape.
A door has opened! A friend commissioned & is producing this/ help bringing it to life. Sorting out what material from a historic figure's life and experiences to include, and how, with visuals, to help it make sense to the readers. How, with economy of text and art, to seat a life, and her legacy, into the reader's mind and heart... in a deeper way...
Stay tuned!

Illustration in Dark Sonnet

It was a pleasure to illustrate a page in Dark Sonnet, by Bill Dohar & Tom McCarthy. The task was to create an old letter, as if it was written by Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Did I copy it from an actual find? There's a mystery to be solved!

Learn more at: www.deprofundisbooks.com

Hilma af Klint drawing and prints

Original medium: Pastels and charcoal on paper, 2022.

Giclée prints 14” x 20”, 10” x 14” and 7” x 10” https://www.etsy.com/StefanSalinas/listing/1266535748/


Hilma af Klint was a Swedish painter (1862-1944). Her works created under the guidance of spirits were among the first abstract paintings, although since they were not released to public view until 50 years after her death, she did not get credit for being a pioneer of the movement.

At the BABF 2022

Thank you for coming to this year’s Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley. It was good to be on site and in person again, interacting with other human beings! Good to see y’all.

St. John the Clairvoyant of Egypt

A new image, available as a giclee print: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1198915338

(Original also available, inquire via email)

SAINT JOHN THE CLAIRVOYANT OF EGYPT

(c.305 - 394) Also known as St. John the Hermit, St. John the Anchorite, or St. John of Lycopolis, was one of the hermits of the Nitrian Desert. He began as a carpenter but at the age of twenty-five began to live a life of solitude. He spent a decade with the hermit, absorbing his master's ways. John was noted for performing seemingly absurd acts such as rolling rocks from place to place and cultivating dead trees. Finally, he withdrew to the top of a cliff near Lycopolis, Egypt, where he could avoid all human contact. There he carved three small cells out of rock; one for sleeping, one for work and the last for praying. Then he walled them up with himself inside, leaving only a small window. He communicated through the window to people who brought him food and water twice a week. Crowds would gather on those two days to hear him preach. Eventually, a hospice was assembled nearby, where disciples could care for the pilgrims.

He was believed to possess the spiritual gift of prophecy and often predicting the future and knowing the details of persons he had never met. He predicted future victories to the Emperor Theodosius the Great. St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Jerome, contemporaries, spoke highly of him.

He avoided seeing women, in particular, to avoid temptation, but he avoided all people for the last fifty years of his life. John was tempted by devils and performed miraculous cures. He cured a woman of blindness (a disciple poured drops of healing oil on her, one that St. John used) and then appeared to her in a vision to avoid seeing her in person.

John never ate until sunset and lived on a diet of dried fruit and vegetables for fifty years.

John prayed incessantly, and he spent the last three days of his life without food or drink, alone in prayer.

His feast day is March 27 in the Western churches and June 12 in Eastern Orthodoxy.

Original art: 2022, acrylic, pencil and gold leaf on paper.

USF Commission 3/25/22

Painting finished! Now to begin the varnishing process.

"Laudato Si'", acrylic on canvas, 64" x 80", 2022.

For the University of San Francisco, Campus Ministry office.

The request was to celebrate the Earth, include St. Francis of Assisi & St. Kateri Tekakwitha, examples of renewable energy sources, and acknowledge various faith traditions. For energy, we have solar, wind, tidal and thermal. The architecture is from houses of worship in San Francisco. And is that a unicorn? In medieval art, a unicorn often represented Christ. I am thankful that Fr. Donal Godfrey gave me the opportunity to create something with the theme of Pope Francis' encyclical. It has been an honor and a blessing.