They Recognized Him in the Breaking of the Bread For Hadley Arkes, on the day of his Baptism, April 24, 2010 April 24, 2010 :: Filed in: Other Selected Articles
The opening of the book of Proverbs, the first nine chapters, contains an exultation of Wisdom as a figure out in the streets exhorting those who would live rightly to be guided by her and to accept her invitation to come home with her. The closing of the book of Proverbs, which we have just heard, is a poem describing the attributes of the “valiant woman” (Proverbs 31,19), that woman of “extraordinary and ceaseless activity” who is beloved and praised as wife and mother. This is the exalted Wisdom of the first nine books, now at home, in ordinary and practical and everyday ways, caring for those who have accepted her invitation to dwell with her.
We depend on the sacred scriptures to find God, who gives us in them his revelation of his mind and his promise, something we would not otherwise know of or have. But as the living Word of God, we are also to find ourselves in the scriptures and to let ourselves be cared for by them in all the circumstances of life.
And so in these closing verses of the book of Proverbs we know that we find Karen, the valiant Karen, whose funeral we reverently and lovingly celebrate today.
Back from an unannounced (and unforeseen) hiatus in blogging, I have so many ideas accumulated that I don’t know which to focus on. So here are brief mentions of various articles that have piled up over the last few weeks, all of which deal with artists who have worked within the “pile up” as Annie Dillard understood it—i.e., the place where art and faith meet.
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The first is the passing of an artist, Karen Laub-Novak—a painter, printmaker and sculptor whose vocation was largely spent in a dialogue with literature, through which she tried to capture the religious sense in art. Among her most memorable works are lithographs inspired by the written word: on St. John’s biblical Apocalypse; on Rainier Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies; on T.S. Eliot’s “Ash Wednesday.” She also illuminated the covers of many of the books of her husband, the writer Michael Novak. It’s interesting to think that Laub-Novak began her work in the 1960s, a time (as Camille Paglia documents in her essay “Religious Vision in the American 1960s”) teeming with interest in the religious traditions exotic to the West.
Laub-Novak was in some ways very much of her time, but she opted more often than not to plumb the depths of her own, Western religious tradition for inspiration. She also wrote some interesting Sontag-esque essays about art, many of which are found on her website.
Words don’t express the awakening of creative experience. An experience valued by few. I try to talk about it. I feel this experience is one of shared humanity. Simple and fundamental in all of us. Talent varies. Commitment varies. The sheer guts to continue on with an activity that seems “unessential to progress” varies. But insight, inspiration, creativity are at the center of all of us. The rising and falling of the spirit are our common heritage, our common goal.
Cresco artist gained fame in her own right Published in the Des Moines Register August 30, 2009 August 30, 2009 :: Filed in: Other Selected Articles
By: Michael Morain
Stroll through Cresco's Beadle Park and it's hard to miss the 13-foot sculpture of Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, the town's most famous native son.
That monument's sculptor, Karen Laub-Novak, grew up in Cresco, too. She studied at the University of Iowa, resettled in Washington, D.C., and became an internationally known artist before cancer took her life earlier this month, on Aug. 12. She was 71.
The artist and her husband, the conservative think-tanker Michael Novak, often entertained a high-powered bunch of friends at their home, including U.S. Rep. Clare Booth Luce, journalist Charles Krauthammer and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, according to an obituary in the Washington Post.
But Laub-Novak gained fame in her own right. Her sculptures, paintings and prints have been displayed throughout the world. One critic called her portrayal of Borlaug "one of the two most beautiful statues in North America"; the other was Augustus Saint-Gaudens' hooded bronze "Grief" at the Adams Memorial in Washington's Rock Creek Cemetery, where Laub-Novak was buried.
The artist sculpted pieces for churches, crafted awards for various organizations and illustrated numbers books and magazines.
Early on, however, her work failed to get attention, and she collected a stack of rejections from gallery owners and curators. After sending countless letters under her full name, she finally decided to sign a note to an important museum with a simple "K." instead of Karen. It worked: The director sent her a warm response.
From then on, she signed all of her work as K. Laub-Novak.
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Cresco native K. Laub-Novak, noted Iowa artist, dies at 71 Published in The Cresco Times-Plain Dealer August 25, 2009 August 26, 2009 :: Filed in: Other Selected Articles
Karen Laub-Novak, a Cresco native and one of Iowa’s greatest artists, died Aug. 12. A large and much noted funeral mass was held Aug. 17 at the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Washington, D.C.
She was a cheerful, colorful and vivacious woman, who was much loved by many different circles in Washington. A distinguished group of these friends gathered for the funeral, including Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and his wife Martha, and a large number of journalists, writers and artists. In her quiet way, her dramatic gestures and warm smiles lit up every party she attended – most remarkably so during the last four years, when her energy for things other than meeting her friends was much depleted.
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The wake will be at the Shine of the Most Blessed Sacrament (3630 Quesada Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20015) from 9:00-10:30am on Monday, August 17. The funeral will begin at 11:00am at the same location. The burial service will follow at Rock Creek Cemetery, located at Rock Creek Church Road, NW, and Webster Street, NW, in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C.A reception will follow immediately afterwards, at a location still to be determined.
In lieu of flowers, the Family requests a contribution to one of the following:
The Karen Laub-Novak Fellowship Fund
The Catholic University of America
School of Philosophy Aquinas Hall Room 100
620 Michigan Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20064
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The Karen Laub-Novak Endowed Scholarship in Arts
Ave Maria University 5050 Ave Maria Blvd. Ave Maria, FL 34142-9505
A Vision for a Civilization of Love -- 2003 Published on Zenit.org July 17, 2003 July 13, 2009 :: Filed in: Other Selected Articles
Back in 2003, Michael Novak anticipated many of the key points of the latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, when he outlined the essential role that caritas plays in a just civilization during an interview with Zenit.
Caritas is to will the good of the other. If we imagine a civilization based upon caritas, we must be careful to think realistically. For caritas shows itself as mercy to sinners, and it is love aimed at the real, not the apparent, good of the other.
It must be based upon realistic judgments rather than illusions, appearances and sentimentality. With its real conception of human nature, a civilization of caritas is necessarily a civilization acutely aware of, and provident for, human sinfulness.
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Stick-to-it-iveness and Grit Published in the Spring 2009 issue of In Character Magazine: Grit July 09, 2009 :: Filed in: Other Selected Articles
The entrepreneur is both an idealist and a realist. He or she would like to be loved, but most of all they want to create. Genuine appreciation from others warms up their willingness to bear the cold winds of reality.
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Michael Novak's Commencement Address at Franciscan University of Steubenville Delivered at Franciscan University of Steubenville May 9, 2009 May 29, 2009 :: Filed in: Other Selected Articles
The main point I want to put before you is that God is not, and cannot be, reached by our poor human equipment. He is on an altogether different frequency. Apart from the God-man Jesus Christ we cannot find Him through out senses. We cannot smell Him. We cannot reach out and touch Him. We cannot taste Him, or hear Him. We cannot see Him. Or picture Him in our imagination. Or recall Him in memory. And even in regard to Jesus, most people who encountered him during his life on earth did not see God in him. God no one can see.
What Obama Should Say at Notre Dame Published in New York Daily News May 14, 2009 May 14, 2009 :: Filed in: Other Selected Articles
On May 17, Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree at the University of Notre Dame. It is one of the most controversial events in American Catholic culture in many years.
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Amazing Growth in Opposition to Abortion Published in The Enterprise Blog May 1, 2009 May 04, 2009 :: Filed in: Other Selected Articles
The latest Pew Research survey (April 30) shows an amazing drop in support for legal abortion since August 2008, and a corresponding jump in numbers of those who now hold that abortion should be made illegal in most or all cases. This trend shows an astonishingly rise in resistance to abortion among people of all ages, and an eye-catching jump in opposition to abortion among moderate and liberal republicans.
The overall picture shows a virtual tie between all those who want to make abortion illegal in most or all cases (44%) and those who maintain that it should be legal in most or all cases (46%). According to Pew: “The decline in support for legal abortion has come entirely in the share saying abortion should be legal in most cases (from 37% to 28%); 18% say abortion should be legal in all cases, which is virtually unchanged from last August (17%).”
The Obama Presidency is only one week old, but it has already limned its main moral outlines.Read more »
A Second Brother Dies Published in National Catholic Reporter January 8, 2009 January 09, 2009 :: Filed in: Other Selected Articles
For the second time, my brother Richard has died, first my blood brother Father Richard Novak in January many years ago in Bangladesh, now today Father Richard John Neuhaus in New York City
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"The most important lesson of the Holocaust is that we must not let the Nazis drive a wedge between us -- not between those who want to be deeply and truly Jewish, and those who want to be deeply and truly Christian. We must not give the Nazis a posthumous victory. We must harken to the Holocaust to draw us together, in the firm and unbreakable revulsion: Never again!"Read more »
New Atheists, Old Realities Published in The Washington Post/Newsweek June 20, 2008 December 17, 2008 :: Filed in: Other Selected Articles
"The question about God is a question about one's own personal identity."
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No One Sees God
