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The Monastery Gallery of Art | West Hartford, CT
  • About the MGA
  • Current Exhibit
  • Classes and Retreats
  • Call to Artists
  • Display Guidelines
  • Contact Us
The Monastery Gallery of Art | West Hartford, CT

Virtual Gallery

Our Deepest Longing - Virtual Exhibit

The Holy Family retreat season theme for this year was Our Deepest Longing. Although the retreats have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Monastery Gallery of Art is closed, this special exhibit by the same name, still hangs in the Gallery. The artists were kind enough to leave their works hanging in the Gallery, we thought that using a virtual art show would enable their work to be seen.

The theme of the exhibit was interpreted in a variety of ways, using many different mediums. Artists have provided statements as to where the theme took them, and what their thoughts were as they used their creative efforts. Along with each artist's name and their work(s) you will find their email address and the price of the work of art. email the artist directly if you wish to make a purchase! Thank you.
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As you look at the works of art, and read the artist’s thoughts, use the following questions to help you look more closely:
  • What is happening in the work?
  • What colors do you see? Is there movement, if so how?
  • Can you tell what materials were used to create the piece?
  • What emotion does the work evoke in you?
  • How does the artist reflect the theme?
  • When finished looking ponder how you would visualize a “deep longing.” What is your deepest longing, what colors and materials represent that longing, is there movement in your picture, does an emotion shine through?

To navigate through the exhibit, just continue to scroll down on this page. In order to view the full piece of art, click on the image and a popup will open so you can see each artists work in more detail. 

A Mother's Heart, $360
Hope, $360
Heartbeat of Hope, $275
A Mother's Heart, $360  |  Hope, $360  |  Heartbeat of Hope $360
​Artist: Adeebah Alnemar (adeebahalnemar@gmail.com)
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Nothing is impossible. My name is Adeebah Alnemar, the mother of five children. My husband and I, with our children, left our homeland in Syria and fled to Jordan where we lived for almost five years. We didn't have anything with us and we weren't allowed to work to make a living. A friend helped me discover my talent, which is drawing in charcoal.

When I draw I use my heart and my mind; I feel like I'm in my own world, forgetting all the bad times we went
through and focus on my dream of becoming an artist. I always like to add hope to everything I draw, because
that's what my family and I believe in. Nothing is impossible.

Safe Harbor, $750
Safe Harbor, $750
​Artist: Karen Israel (karenisrael59@gmail.com)


I am inspired by the human interaction and emotion. I choose to tell a story in my work, one that may hold a deeper meaning to me.

Side by Side Always, $1,500
Artist: Anna Gowel (angawel@yahoo.com)
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My inspiration comes from animals and nature and believe that there is a connection amongst all things in life. I work with many different types of art mediums and forms and enjoy experimenting & fusing mediums.

Paired Existance 1, $1,200  |  Paired Existance 2, $1,200  |  Paired Existance 3, $,1200
Artist: Katherine Emely Gomez (katherineggomez@gmail.com)

My artworks relate to intuitive thought, emptiness and cognitive awareness: the feeling that time has stopped, or of an alternate dreamlike universe. “Paired Existence” series embodies a combination of expressionistic painting and photographic realism. The paint stroke technique emits a connective movement derived from the unconscious while the self-portrait image-transfer emits a mirrored juxtaposition between the unknown and reality. The wood plank canvas is a symbol of strength and physical existence amongst nature. The vivid color waves are distortedly surrounding the portrait figures conveying an intertwinedtwin-ship energy between space and time.

Tranquility, $150
Artist: Laura Marks (lmarks297@gmail.com)

I love the meditative quality of drawing lines; especially lines that weave in and out among one another. When I am nearing the end of a piece such as the one I am submitting, I tend to stretch out the completion of the work because I regret not being able to continue the soothing motion of creating strands overlapping, weaving, separating and diverting and conjoining.  

Splendor, $600
Artist: Mary Marsan (marsanmary@gmail.com)


Fall's Splendor-All creation proclaims the glory of God. My deepest longing is for a deep loving relationship with God. We may experience God in the beauty of creation. Awareness of God is something we have to nurture to keep our relationship strong. I find God in the beauty of the earth, in a beautiful sunset or a cool, crisp autumn day.

Omen - Message Received, $6,500  |  Serenity - Peaceful Silence, $6,500
Artist: Paul Christopher Conticelli (paul@paulchristopher.nyc)


I find inspiration from the beauty of nature, color, texture, evolution, personal experiences and challenges, and beyond. 

Here on this earth.
We find ourselves in search.

Amidst the crashing seas.
Above the parting skies.
Beneath the clouds.

Here on this earth.
We find ourselves in search.

Rippling currents. 
Curdling emotions,

Discovering and Exploring,
Reaching and Maturing.

The essence of our existence.


The rain will pour. The sun will shine.
Bringing calmness to solitude always.

Here on this earth.
I find love for me.

Spiritual Direction (Not for Sale)
Artist: Karrie Kirchner (karrie.kirchner@yahoo.com)


I believe we all contain a question that is unable to be formed with words - a yearning - a reaching - a longing. A longing for something - for something just out of reach, for connection, for community, for closeness, for answers, to be truly seen, to be deeply listened to and understood. I believe that by going inside of ourselves, we find the answers to our deepest longing.  These images are what I found in my inner landscape when I journeyed within myself. These works continue to give me answers and whisper to my deepest longing. 

Collage is my favorite medium because of its simplicity and accessibility.  From the humble beginnings of discarded magazines and scotch tape, metaphors take shape. Through the act of cutting and pasting and piecing together, the journey of spiritual inquiry springs forth from my fingertips and what seemed just out of reach becomes tangible. 

Sunset 1, $350  |  Sunset 2, $300
Artist:
Cathy Gross (gross920@yahoo.com) 


I enjoy watching sunsets on the lake near my house. On some nights the sky is a brilliant red, and the contrast between the brightness of that, and the darkness of the docks below is striking. For the brief moment right before night takes over, is when it burns the brightest. These two paintings are an attempt to capture that fleeting moment.

Hope Is What Is Left (Pandora's Jar), $3,000
Artist:  Janet Leombruni (myauntbea@yahoo.com)

 
These works illustrate stories and experiences I have had in my years teaching in the Hartford Public schools. Hope is the underlying thread among these paintings. In Pandora’s Jar, while the students’ worlds are full of difficulties on a daily basis, hope for a peaceful life and balance is what is held within dearly. It describes the longing for love and acceptance, which ultimately may only be available as they grow up in a relationship with Jesus. A longing which is not really of this world. But available to us all anytime if we reach out our hand and ask.

Just As I Am, $495  |  Peace on Earth (Not for Sale)
Artist: Amanda Patrick (ajpafrica@aol.com)


I have loved art as long as I can remember, drawing prolifically as a child, and continuing to journal my thoughts in art over the years, particularly as it related to my faith. On my global travels (mostly in Africa) I developed a strength in the use of colored pencils–partly because of the ease of transporting them around, often to very remote areas in Africa–but the medium also satisfies my love of color, precision, and detail. My work has always been expressive, colorful, and strongly symbolic, with calligraphic and typographic elements. I believe my art illuminates the values that I ponder and hold dear–values that are "without borders", such as cultural diversity, justice for the marginalized, preserving nature and the environment, education, and the enduring richness and relevance of sacred words and literature, especially biblical texts

I Wish I Could Have Saved Him (Not for Sale)
Artist: 
Suzanne Connah (suzanneconnah@gmail.com)


In considering the theme, "Our Deepest Longing," I immediately related to it on a very personal and tender longing. At 7 years old, I watched as my Father passed away. Being the only one in the room with him and not understanding, I walked away. Later in my life, I thought, "I wish I could have saved him...I should have saved him..."

Love Boat, $250
​Artist:
Julie O’Connor  (kjulieoconnor@gmail.com) 


I am passionate about photography as an art form. In a world overfull with images, ideas, and messages streaming at us at warp speed, there is profound value in the thoughtfulness, the provocation, the silent aesthetic, the power of an image made with the vision and ever evolving techniques of fine art photography.

Your Whisper 1, $1,600  |  Your Light Will Break Out Like the Dawn, $2,400
Artist:
Hyun Hannah Jung  (hjjhannah@gmail.com)


My artwork (a series of "Led by the Light") visualizes my journey of life and its beauty of the symbolic imageries in nature. As humans, we strive to find who we are and where we belong on earth. These integral questions in our minds through this journey allow us to utilize the natural world to touch the depths of our hearts that desire to seek the answers and understand our true identities. As the viewers cast their own imagination upon the images, these images are, in turn, transformed by impression from their own past and present and eventually arrive at their destinies in the future. 
I believe art has the power to enlighten the eyes of viewers’ hearts to see ordinary nature as a new revelation. This journey into the divine realities of nature invites us to tap into the essential core of our own being. My paintings are meant to encourage the viewers to have these spiritual experiences through their own personal perceptions and interpretations.

Herod's Fit, $1,050 | Asylum, $2,250
Artist: Katie Runde  (katir.runde@gmail.com)


Both paintings are highly politicized—the first, Herod’s Fit, became my 2016 Christmas card.  I had just read Marcus Borg’s reading of the slaughter of the innocents: how Herod having all young children slaughtered to protect his power echoed Pharaoh’s ordering Hebrew children to be killed in a similar bid for security.  This shows the incredible power of spiritual integration versus material or political might.  There was nothing that Pharaoh or Herod could do with all their wealth, prestige, and deadly scheming to resist the growing strength of the Israelites or, in this case, the birth of Christ into the world.  The deep longing here is for Christ power, for the inexorable rule of wisdom and compassion over hatred and fear, for the growth of relationship through community, vulnerability, and love versus the divisive worldly powers of wealth-hoarding, defense-building, and dehumanization.

Asylum follows in similar tracks—here the Holy Family is a picture of Christ where we see Him today: in those thrown to the outskirts of any society. Whether by xenophobia, violence, or environmental catastrophe, refugees are so easily dehumanized by talk of practicality or politics.  Mary is a Rohingya Muslim, Joseph a Mexican migrant, and the Christ child a baby Syrian girl. This image invites viewers to remember that the Holy Family, too, had to flee to Egypt to escape danger, that Christ, too, was a refugee, and that He still is today.  The longing here is not merely for a home, for belonging, for safety, but also for our hearts to be opened wide enough to recognize Christ in all of those around us with existential need for love and care, no matter what the powers and principalities may argue.  Christ reminds us that expediency is a ridiculous reason to dehumanize and turn away those children of God in need.

Love, $200
Artist:
 Joseph R. Gorneault Jr.  (artistmann@yahoo.com)
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Joseph R. Gorneault, Jr. is an artist known for his creative and dramatic use of color. output and vision. Gorneault creates three-dimensional work that reveals hidden worlds unseen by the naked eye. Their depth represent forward movement, as each piece of art draws you in. Positive messages, such as BLISS and FAITH, are clearly posted like street signs on our personal highways.. 

Blue Galaxy, $200 | Blue Galaxy with Planets, $200 | Galaxy Landscape, $200
Artist: Chanel Ross   (rchanel0722@gmail.com)

I specialize in watercolor illustrations. I take an exploratory and imaginative approach when creating each piece. In this case, I've been making paintings that vocalize my desire to explore and create. I do this by testing the limits of my medium, and choosing subject matter that illustrates the need to explore.

Planet Waves, $450
Artist:  Steven Ostrowski (sostrow2@sbcglobal.net)
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As a writer and painter, my aim has long been to, as Flannery O'Connor put it, "deepen the mystery."

Each piece is Untitled, each piece is $350
Artist:
Pamela Fuller  (pfuller2@gmail.com)

My work is about a practice of meditation with color, shapes, and direction informed by translations of experience. It is about the persistence in maintaining "a deep and abiding affection for life." 

"This is the moment we have, it is the moment of everyone. It is the moment of the fish. It is the moment of light. It is when the rainbow speaks. It is the breath from your body, on winter's cold morning, t
he sun warms the wing of the wren." by Jonathan Lasker

King, $175 | Christ Is Love, $175
Artist:  Andrea  Veras  (veras.prism@gmail.com)
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I can see Jesus in many ways: Son of God, son of Mary and Joseph, preacher, friend, healer, and so on. But most importantly, He is the Creator of the Universe, our Lord and God, whose love and mercy for humans is so infinite that died for us on the cross to save us from our sins. Painting Him was the most difficult task I had ever encountered in my not so long career as a painter. Not only I had never seen Him personally, but any time I tried drawing his face, something different came out. It was a real challenge. Although these paintings are probably not my best, the hours I put onto working on them, make them unique for me.

I Am What I Am, Original Not for Sale, but 25"x15"print available for $175
Artist: Deborah Leonard  (deborahbleonard@gmail.com)


We all long to feel connected, to each other and to something larger than ourselves. We search for validation, worthiness and acceptance. We already are all that we seek- worthy, connected and deeply loved by eternal source. It cannot be any other way. The title I AM THAT I AM helps explain the way I see us-not separate, but all parts of the whole. Longing fulfilled.

Winding Up, $300 | A Sargent Admirer, $450
Artist: Elaine Benevides  
(Ebladyhiker@aol.com)


WINDING UP: I painted this from a photo I took the night that a wonderfully intense art workshop that I attended in the countryside of England (North Yorkshire) ended. Some art friends and I went for a walk after the five-day workshop was over. We were all very depressed that the workshop and our time together was coming to a close, as we live thousands of miles away from each other and only get together once per year. Barbara, was walking ahead of me and I thought she looked so beautiful in the evening sunlight. I feel the painting captures our longing well.

A SARGENT ADMIRER: I went to an exhibit in NYC a few months ago of Sargent's charcoal portraits. I snapped a photo of this lady who was admiring this one particular portrait and she seemed to be longing for something. What, I do not know. It did remind me of the years I perused museums wishing that I could paint. I'd go from painting to painting in awe. I'm a late bloomer where the arts are concerned. Thought I could barely draw stick figures before 2014!

Sounds of Sorrow, $475 | Relations of Being, $475 | Soul, $295
​Artist: Nancy Doherty (nancydoherty@hotmail.com)


This body of work quietly searches for that inner space that embraces remembrance and connection, paying tribute to the person who most championed my art.

Connection, Not for Sale
Artist: Aimee Blair (aimeepblair@gmail.com)

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The title is Connection. It speaks to our deep longing for authentic connection to each other, to the
Earth, and to the Divine, in our modern time of isolation and superficial "connectedness."

Artist: Beth Kanachovski (lizzy53k@yahoo.com)
Ocean Breezes, Not for Sale
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High school, that was the last time I did anything. As I got older something was missing, my search began.
I found art again and a release of creativity was what calmed my world. My recent journey took a path to handmade papers and shapes, pallet knife and paints seem to have been the fork in the road for this
chapter of my art.

Longing For Daily Joy, Not for Sale | Longing For The Right Free Will Decision, Not for Sale
Artist: Jean Marie Wozniak (Jmbell2@yahoo.com)

My first multi-medium collage is titled Longing for Daily Joy. Each day we get a unique sunrise which is a gift to us "the present” The strips are beams of my sunrise. They are represented by what gives me joy animals. The softness of their fur and their Soulful eyes take away the hard edges of Our Lives. The other beams are flowers the sight smell and touch of flowers can change a person's demeanor instantly.. The orb in the left corner with its Deep Purple Regal outer layer or Iris represents God's watchful eye over us. The alive four leaf clover is the Living God. The white dandelion underneath is our God on Earth the Holy Spirit. His light is ever reaching touching us all on our journey.

Submission 2 longing to make the right Free Will decisions. This mixed medium collage diptych was first done, as a single collage it represented what happens when we make poor decisions in our lives and not follow God's rules it was the portal to hell. When it was finished I realized that a truly represented that but also when I turned it upside down I realize it had a totally different meaning. It could also mean it represents the portal to heaven. When people are at the end of their lives most do not
want to move on even if it means a heavenly home. They cling to the Earthly home possibly because that's all they know and unsure of the next Step. so in the second part of the diptych that is what is being depicted as the hand's are lingering to stay on this Earth as they are being pulled upward. Ultimately the two diptychs represent the outcomes to our Free Will decisions on Earth.

Called to Love and Serve, Not for Sale | Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, Not for Sale
Artist:  Jan Peters (janqpeters@gmail.com)


This image, Called to Love and Serve,  was inspired by the lives of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Theresa of Calcutta, who gave witness to Christ’s call to love one another. 

Working with our local homeless population, I am moved by their example of charity toward one another.
In creating this image, Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, it was my intention to show the goodness that can dwell within each person, regardless of circumstance  


Maria, $2,000 | Mary and Baby, $2,500
Artist: Alexandre Sazonov (
matchbookart@gmail.com)


Maria - When we try to describe the Virgin Mary we use the words: kindness, devotion, holiness and divine spirit. These are qualities we wish all women to have.

Mary and Baby - When I think about Mary I see a pure, humble, warm-hearted woman, who has dedicated her life to her domestic duties, serving her family and others. She never has doubts about the lifestyle she’s chosen. She truly believes that if she continues serving others, God will smile upon her. As a result of this, God blessed her with a divine child, who became the face of the human race forever from that point.

Morning Sunlight, $250
Artist: Rose Petronella   (sacredcircles01@att.net)
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My work originates in prayer and is an expression of inner longings, struggles and joys. 

The Journey, $300 | Salt Air, $275
Artist: Kathleen Fallon (kcfallon@mac.com)


These pieces are part of my Conceptual Photography series, in which I blend multiple layers of my photographs as well as effects to create a new vision.


Light A Candle (Song)
Artist: Steve O'Connell


​Confucius said, ‘What you do not want done to you do not do to others’
Jesus said, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself’
Love one another as yourself.  Not as you love yourself, but rather,
love the other as if they are you – because they are.
What if we practiced this as a longing rather than as a divine command?  
Could this be our deepest longing?  
Finding our light; Sharing our light;   It’s what we’ve always known

History of our space

The Monastery Gallery of Art is located on the historic grounds of Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center. The MGA occupies a space on the B floor adjacent to the Public Chapel and that was once used as a dining room by the Passionist Community.

We are open daily, during Holy Family business hours, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
COVID-19 Policies and Procedures
Picture

The Monastery Gallery of ART

303 Tunxis rd.
West Hartford, CT 06107
860.760.9766