Trying to keep myself busy on Good Friday I decided that I should read some of the newsletters from St. Gregory’s Academy.  I ended up falling upon the All Souls Day edition from fall 2009, in which Andrew W. Smith, the resident artist and art instructor at SGA, published the Article “The Artist and the Human Vocation.”


Mr. Smith’s article is quite good, and I am fascinated by the curriculum he is implementing at SGA.  I truly wish that I could have had an art instructor while I was there.  I instead was given my own studio on the sun porch, and was free to pursue my own artistic devices at my own discretion (which mind you was not very discrete).  Mr. Smith brought to my attention a quite valuable book that I had never known of: Vitruvius’ Ten Books on Architecture.  The author was a Roman architect and contemporary of Virgil.  He prefaces his books to “Imperator Caesar,” much like Bacon introduces his New Organum to the King.  I find the preface to be quite clever, and the beginning of the book is full of aphorisms germane to Latin (be as one chasing the substance not the shadow, etc.)  Vitruvius, Mr. Smith argues, “emphasize the importance of a liberal education and lay out the principles upon which good architecture rest.”  

Vetruvius’ man, the original from which the namesake Vetruvian Man was taken by Leonardo da Vinci

Vitruvius, Mr. Smith argues, “emphasize[s] the importance of a liberal education and lay[s] out the principles upon which good architecture rest.”  


As I began reading a bit of Vitruvius this morning as leisure reading.  I am quite pleased with the book so far, and I believe that I will attempt to infiltrate this into my curriculum at some point next year.  


I do hope, my dearest ones, that your Easter is full of joy (evangelium)!


Earlie in the morning,


Peter Bloch


Andrew Wilson Smith, Resident Artist, Art Instructor  Mr. Smith, a graduate of St. Gregory’s, studied sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and the Florence Academy of Art, as well as serving apprentices with various sculptors. He has completed a number of commissions, including a bronze fountain piece for the American School in Switzerland, a set of eight herm-portraits for California State University at Stanislaus, and recently a set of seven metopes for the St. Theresa Education Center in Sugar Land, Texas. In addition to his studio work, Mr. Smith has joined the faculty as the art and art history instructor at St. Gregory’s, after having taught art history at Wyoming Catholic College. To learn more about Andrew Wilson Smith and to view his work, please visit his website: www.andrewwilsonsmith.com.