St. Dominic de Guzmán

St. Dominic de Guzmán

Cosmic Visionary 1170–1221

Patronage Astronomy, The Rosary, Preaching, & Trailblazers

Feast Day August 8

Tradition tells that Mary appeared to Dominic instructing him to spread the prayer of the rosary. The devotion and charisma aided him in spreading the faith as he created the Order of Preachers. His mother, Bl, Juanna of Aza, struggled with infertility. In prayer, she went on pilgrimage. There, she had a vision of a dog leaping from her womb holding a torch, which is what Dominic’s name means.

Small Snippet

Saint Dominic, intercede to the Holy Ghost that I live in wonder of the cosmos, persistent in paving the path ahead, and may have a deeper love for the rosary.

Prayer

Artistic Process

I started with a pencil sketch to get the composition as I wanted it to be.

Sketch

This statue is in St. Catherine of Siena church, NYC. As I walked by this statue, I knew it would be perfect for how I wanted to depict St. Dom.

Statue Photo

Lilacs symbolize first love, and this portrays St. Dominic’s first love for Christ.

I took these photos when I visited Ottawa, Canada during the summer of 2021.

Astrophotography isn’t my strongsuit, but I gave it a shot in my backward in a heavily light-polluted area in New York. This is for St. Dominic’s patronage of astronomy.

Stars

I chose to use a spanish dog as a reference because St. Dominic is Spanish, as well as the Spanish Poppy flower.

This last image is of my first depiction of St. Dominic. I kept many of the ideas from my first illustration in mind. The dogbearing torch was important, as was the rosary in his hand. It was fun for me to keep his habit yellow as well.