St. John Don Bosco

Quirky Tightrope Walker
1815–1888

Patronage Slackline Walking, Magicians, Editors, & Publishers

Feast Day January 31

Don Bosco lived to care for the youth of Turin, Italy. He housed boys who had nowhere to go, providing them with trade skills in tailoring, shoemaking, bookbinding, and publishing. An eclectic priest, he performed acrobatics, tightrope walking, and even magic tricks as he preached the gospel.

Small Snippet

Saint Don Bosco, intercede to the Holy Ghost that I may love and support the people younger than me with care and encouragement.

Prayer

Artistic Process

To start off, I had to sketch how I wanted to compose Don Bosco. Most important to me was communicate his joy and silliness. I wanted to portray him doing something he’s never been portrayed doing.

Sketch

His Photo

This led me to photos I took of myself and my friend walking on a slackline in college. This was one of my favorite things, and my campus minister at the time told me we reminded her of him.

Slackline

Inspiration

I’ve never seen a priest on a slackline so I had to get inspiration from elsewhere. Thankfully, plenty of wacky/skilled people walk on these tightropes, making the search easy enough.

Redwood Oak Tree

I took this photo driving along the coast of California in 2019. It’s always important to me to bring as many real elements as I can into these collages. I want to strike that balance between hand-drawn and photo.

Boca Background

I took this hiking in Virginia in 2022. I adjusted the camera just right as the sun rose on the horizon.

I was originally going to use this photo of him, but it felt too simple. The challenge was to draw from this photo to actually make his face look like him.