The picture of motherly love
Annual Marian art exhibit continues through May 25 at Star of the Sea Parish
By Catholic San Francisco
Visitors have only one weekend left to take in the impressive and inspiring Marian Art Exhibition at Star of the Sea Parish in San Francisco ending May 25. In its fourth year, the annual exhibition is a public showcase of student artists and others celebrating Mary in acrylic paint, watercolor, ink, colored pencil, collage, mixed media, and more.
“I founded the annual Marian Art Exhibition to help to foster a devotion to the Virgin Mary and to promote religious creativity especially in young children,” said Mariella Zevallos, director of communications and parish life at Star of the Sea Catholic Church. The exhibition opened with a reception on May 2 in the school auditorium. Its final day is May 25 from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
With the support of pastor Father Joseph Illo, Zevallos, herself a fine artist, collaborated with Marilyn Luzzio Bridon, fine art teacher at Stella Maris Academy, to organize and produce the exhibition as part of the art program for the classical school. This year, the exhibition includes the artwork of 82 students from preschool through eighth grade.
It also welcomed Marian artwork from other sources, including emerging local adult artists Richard Barton, Marilyn Luzzio Bridon, Barbara Deuel, Emily Dobey, Michael Ornido, and Zevallos herself. A painting by young parishioner Lucia Sullivan is featured, as is a sepia ink drawing of Mary done by the late Solweig Eva McStay on the day she became Catholic in 1955. The artist is the mother of Catholic San Francisco reporter Christina Gray.
The exhibition revealed the love the students put into their pieces, said Zevallos, and the talented guest artists showed a variety of styles that expressed a range of emotions to the viewing audience.
“It was a unique body of work, each piece made with love to honor Our Lady Mary,” she said.
Zevallos said the Marian Art Exhibition is a good opportunity to also visit Star of the Sea’s 16 Marian Shrines inside the church. Each of the 16 shrines displayed along the east and west walls of the church portray the most important apparitions of Our Lady throughout history. Each features a statue or image of an apparition, as well as flowers, candles and kneelers for devotions. A pamphlet describes the apparition and the most vital words of Our Lady’s message at that time.
Visit starparish.com, or contact the parish office at (415) 751-0450.
