Local Catholic artists find camaraderie and creativity through meeting in public to discuss God’s beauty, truth and goodness
ROYAL OAK — G.K. Chesterton would often discuss arts and culture in a pub in London with his friends and colleagues.
J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis famously exchanged letters with each other.
Since the time of Christ and his apostles dining together, the Christian faith has centered on small groups of people gathering to discuss truth, beauty and goodness.
So when Kurt Klein, a sculptor and painter from St. Isidore Parish in Macomb Township, at the suggestion of his wife, Tia, met Tom Doran, an author and engineer from Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth, the two hit it off when they agreed to meet over breakfast to discuss the intertwining between art and faith.
The two met in the spring of 2022 at a café in Birmingham, and as they described it, what seemed like a 30-minute conversation lasted for hours as the two kept bouncing ideas off each other.
Both Klein and Doran knew they needed to meet again and bring more people into the fold.
“Tom called me and asked what I’d think about trying to raise a small group of Catholic creatives that would meet regularly,” Klein told Detroit Catholic. “My reaction was that I loved the idea, but who are we going to get to be part of this group? My circle of influences is small. Tom said we’d think about it, pray about it, and maybe something would come up.”
What came up was a small group of seven Catholic creatives that included Klein; his wife, Tia, who is an author; Doran and his brother, Jim, a member of Resurrection Parish in Canton who has published six anthologies and self-published six novels; John Daraban, a recently retired floor worker at the Ford Motor Company who specializes in photography and videography and attends St. Lawrence Parish in Utica; Maysoun Seman, a catechist from St. Thomas Chaldean Catholic Church in West Bloomfield who specializes in mixed-media art; and Kathleen Bordo Crombie, a iconographer from Church of the Divine Child in Dearborn.
The group first met a few months after Kurt Klein and Tom Doran’s initial meeting to discuss their art and how it intertwines with their faith.
“One of the things we felt was important was having a variety of artistic interests, even within the same kind of broad category, like visual art,” Tom Doran said. “It did lead to the question, ‘What were we going to talk about?’ Because our art was so different from one person to another. But we thought we all loved art; we all believed in truth and beauty, and we have that in common. So, something will come of it.”
The group gathered in the back of Market North End in Birmingham. As patrons stood in line to place orders at the café, they would see the group seated at the table, discussing the projects they were working on and what inspired them.
There was no set agenda or discussion topic — the group doesn’t even have a formal name — it was just a group of Catholics discussing art in public with all to see.
Although John Daraban showing up with a camera did draw some attention.
“Me being the photo-video guy, I brought out the big camera, the microphone hanging off the side,” Daraban said. “I was hanging out, walking around, so I wasn’t being discreet necessarily. But I loved the idea. At first, I was reluctant and wasn’t sure if there would be pushback like, ‘Hey, we don’t talk about religion in public here.’ But there was none of that.”
The meeting focused less on techniques or themes and more on what drew each of them to create art and for Whom they were creating it. It allowed the artists from various fields to see they were not alone.
“I think everyone needs accompaniment in their journey through life, and for me, art is a gift the Lord has infused into my soul before He put me into my mother’s womb,” Seman said. “Every artist has that creativity God has infused into their soul, so I was seeking to use the gifts I had. But I needed that encouragement, that accompaniment we all need in different parts of our lives.”
It was part creative workshop, part spiritual support, but all of it was rooted in preaching the Gospel in their given crafts.
“What I love about it is we were evangelizing just by being ourselves,” Tia Klein said. “We had our medals, our cross that we normally wear, and we were speaking about our faith in our conversations. We weren’t going out to preach, but naturally talking about God and the Lord and the Holy Spirit and Christ, truth, beauty and the nature of God, and people were really standing in line to get their breakfast and were listening. That was very exciting to me.”
The group meets quarterly, either in one another’s homes or in public places.
A memorable meeting took place at the café at the Detroit Institute of Arts, where, fittingly, people who gathered to view art were drawn to Daraban displaying large works where he used industrial crayons that are normally used on factory floors.
“John was showing his works, happening to be in the middle of a heady conversation about truth, beauty and goodness,” Kurt Klein said. “In the middle of the conversation, John was talking about the works he brought, the crayons he brought, and while he was speaking, the people who were waiting to place their order would step out of line and see what everybody else was looking at and commenting on. They were drawn to what John was saying, what inspired him to do this work, and they wanted to see what he created, but also listened, maybe if only for a minute or two, about why he did what he did.”
Since the group has a wide variety of artistic backgrounds, conversation doesn't get bogged down in technique or finer artistic intricacies, but rather what it means for the different mediums to depict what they see as truth in the eyes of God.
“When art has been shared with different mediums and different ways people are co-creating with God, for me, it gives a deep insight into the expression of one’s journey,” Seman said. “You know the process of your own artwork, how it comes into fruition, the trials of it, the story of your own journey. But when I hear what everyone is saying, how they are expressing creativity and beauty and God, I can better see and convey how God uses us all in such unique ways.”
The group chats also serve as validation for artists that the work they are doing is blessed by God.
“For the most part, artists live a very solitary existence," Kurt Klein said. "When you’re concentrating on what you’re doing, you need that time to focus and put all of that energy and thought into your work, and that can be very secluding; you don’t know if what you’re doing is what you’re supposed to be working on.
“For instance, sculptures usually take a long time to complete, but when I hear Tom talk about how much time he spends in research and background work before writing a book, I feel better about how much time I have to commit for my work to be finished,” Kurt Klein added.
Jim Doran, admittedly the introvert of the group, said he used to be part of a faith-sharing group, but said "eyes would start to glaze over" whenever he would bring up his creative work. In this group, other members not only to encourage him to share his work, but often remove a creative block.
“I was working on a novel and was struggling to find the book’s center,” Jim Doran said. “And it took one sentence from Kathleen for me to figure out what the book was about. It was kind of startling; she said something, and suddenly, this is who my main character is, and this is the journey I want to take her on.
“I’ve been part of many critique groups that aren’t Catholic, and the feedback is good,” Jim Doran added. “But in each of my novels, I try to find that Catholic center, and this group really helped me find it for that novel.”
The group has an email chain in which members share reflections from the meetings or passages and pieces of art that have inspired them. They take note of all the “coincidences” that have come up in their creative processes that other group members say aren’t coincidences, but nudgings from the Lord.
It’s not a complicated idea, Catholic artists getting together occasionally to discuss their work. It’s been done time and time again.
But sometimes, the simplest concepts are the best, and for these local Catholic artists, it is this fellowship of the arts where they find God’s truth and beauty reflected in their own creations.
“For me, there is a level of spiritual encouragement and fortification and a sense of not being alone,” Tia Klein said. “Kurt spoke about this earlier. The Bible speaks about surrounding yourself with good Christian families, good Christian people and believers, which fortify you to live a good Christian life.
“This group allows us to fortify ourselves in our faith and fortify each other in a spiritual calling,” Tia Klein added. “We give each other encouragement, a sense that others are struggling, wrestling with, ‘Am I fulfilling the Lord’s calling? Is this worth my time? Am I good enough or worthy of this?' Here, with this group, we fortify each other.”
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