Dan Donovan

VIDEO PORTRAITS

Father Dan Donovan

Video clips © CCCA & Linda Corbett_Eyeris Inc. 2005
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Collection 1 Father Dan Donovan discusses how the harmony between his preaching, teaching and collecting reflects who he is. Works on display in his office include pieces by Tim Whiten, Dwelling #5, Cynthia Short Hurley, Whirlpool, and John Brown, 10 Attempts to Imagine the Inside of My Body #8. Next, we begin the collection tour with John McEwen's sculpture of an angel, Rock and Body, then examine Luis Mallo's Laminas #5, Reinhard Reitzenstein's, The Flowering Tree, and John Clark's, Untitled, (Red Tree and Figure). running time: 07:15 start
Interview From choosing single artworks to grouping and placing appropriate pieces together, as it grows the "collection takes a certain identity, then it makes demands". Father Dan Donovan talks about creative challenges, his hopes for the future of the collection, and the pleasure he derives from engaging with art that, "makes a statement about life and death and hope and suffering and about beauty". running time: 04:04 start
Collection 2 Father Dan Donovan continues the tour of, "Signs of the Spirit" by taking us through the "coffee room". Artwork includes pieces by Harold Klunder, Portrait Study, Ted Rettig, Contemplative Figure, John Brown, A Delicate Family (Twelve Attempts to Paint a Human Face) #4, John Hall, Untitled Still Life: M1, and Leopold Plotek, Akedah (The Sacrifice of Isaac). running time: 04:05 start
Collection 3 The tour continues in the "meeting room" where the first two pieces purchased by Father Donovan in 1967 hang. They are souvenirs of four years of study in Rome and northern Germany. Both woodcuts, Job, and Habakkuk by Jakob Steinhardt reflect the Holocaust. In counterpoint to these, Father Donovan has placed two pieces about the Resurrection. A fine bronze sculpture, The Door and a mixed media piece on wood titled, Threshold, Yellow-Orange, are both by Tony Urquhart. running time: 03:07 start
Collection 4 The "waiting room" is really a small gallery area set aside off a corridor housing a number of pieces which celebrate the theme of "life overcoming death". Here we find two sculptural works in carved limestone by Ted Rettig, Untitled #1 and Cave of the Heart, an oil on canvas by Leopold Plotek, Christ Lay in the Bonds of Death, Regan Morris's, Page 8, Roland Poulin's etching, Source noire, and Ron Shuebrook's sculpture, Object (Black). running time: 04:39 start
Interview At the heart of his collecting is a love for art and a feeling that the work, "speaks to me" and "affirms me". Sharing the collection with others is the ultimate charge though, bringing renewed energy and a feeling that the process is all worthwhile. running time: 02:07 start