Michael Smither: “I Would Have Been a Franciscan”

“If I hadn’t become a painter, I would have been a Franciscan,” is how Christian artist Michael Smither described himself in an interview with the New Zealand Women’s Weekly in 1969.

Michael made several paintings of Saint Francis – his favorite saint.  This one is called “Saint Francis Receives the Stigmata”, and while it definitely is not  a traditionally “sweet christian” image, the artist’s love for the Saint shows clearly in the work.

The saint is shown lying on a highly-detailed sward of grass and plants, his sandals (the traditional icons of humility and bondage) kicked off his feet.  His feet and hands are twisted, both in ecstasy and to show the wounds.  The tanned color of his body and the worn palms and soles of his feet speak volumes about his life and the things he loved.

There is a dandelion plant in the forground of the painting, and in his ecstasy Saint Francis has crushed part of it – but one of the flowers shines gloriously between his feet.  Standing out as it does against the dark interior of Saint Francis’ habit, this little flower is definiely one of the painting’s main focal points.

No doubt Michael chose the dandelion for its symbolic connotations.  It is a favorite flower of children, and Michael’s three children feature frequently in his paintings.  It also carries the symbolims of hope, of wishes fulfilled and of new beginnings.   Even more appropriately, the dandelion has for centuries been recognized as a very powerful healing herb.  In this sense it symbolizes Saint Francis as the patron saint of animals and ecology.

This is a very different portrait of a Saint – and to me it is very modern, as Christian art goes.  Here is the artist’s explanation of his approach to his Saint Francis works:

“St Francis is the patron saint of ecology.  He’s the one who reopresents, in the Catholic tradition anyway, the person who cares for the environment and all the creatures that live in it.  But I feel rather uncomfortable about the tradition of saints now in the Church because I feel they’re elevated to such a level that people think they can’t achieve the same levels.  And anybody’s capable of talking to animals, anybody’s capable of fixing other people through healing if they want to, if they happen to be healers.”

This close tie between Christianity and care for the environment occurs in a number of New Zealand’s Christian artists – and I’m not sure at this point if this is true for many modern Christian artists in other countries.  But it is definitely something I shall be looking out for as I continue with this exploration, becuase it’s something that is close to my heart also.

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art, christian, modern, Michael Smither, artist, Saint Francis, stigmata, New Zealand, environment, conservation