New York City (1999-2001)

Pope St. John Paul II spoke directly to artists in his "Letter to Artists" (1999) and Mac Manus now had a clear vision of his way to serve the Church:

14. With this Letter, I turn to you, the artists of the world…to help consolidate a more constructive partnership between art and the Church…I appeal especially to you, Christian artists ...the close alliance that has always existed between the Gospel and art means that you are invited to use your creative intuition to enter into the heart of the mystery of the Incarnate God and at the same time into the mystery of man…

(23)...it is up to you, men and women who have given your lives to art, to declare in Christ the world is redeemed: the human person is redeemed, the human body is redeemed...Humanity in every age, and even today, looks to works of art to shed light upon its path and its destiny.

These words inspired Mac Manus to go back to school. On scholarship, he attended the New York Academy of Art, a private art school that emphasizes figurative artistic training. Anatomy became the artistic vocabulary through which he explored his understanding of his faith. "Do I really believe that God reduced himself to bones and muscles?" he asked. He expressed his response in the depiction of crucified Christ (see the display case outside the May Gallery) and understood that the Incarnation was God taking human form and, in Mac Manus's words "...elevating our carnality."

NOTE: The pieces in this case are representative of the work that Mac Manus was doing between 1999-2001.