What drives an artist to create? 

For the viewer of the drawing, painting, or sculpture, mystery often surrounds the creative process. It is also true that what motivates an artist varies amongst artists.

For Dony Mac Manus, Lecturer of Drawing and Sculpture in the Department of Art, Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art and the University’s first Artist in Residence, the starting point is often a commission for a work of liturgical art. Like many artists, he develops his ideas first through sketches inspired by primary source readings and visuals from museums, churches, and books. However, deep faith, prayer, and contemplation are the critical ingredients that differentiate his creative process from that of many others.

Created in Reverence: The Artistic Process of Dony Mac Manus is on view in Mullen Library’s May Gallery through the Spring, 2023 semester. The items on display include watercolor and clay sketches, and will give visitors a glimpse into Mac Manus’s approach based on Thomas Aquinas’s definition of art as recto ratio factibilium or right reason in regard to the making of things