The Virgin Mary and child Print

Ignatius Peacher is a monk at Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey. He was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, but grew up in Texas except for four years in Germany during his adolescence. He studied art at St. John’s University in Minnesota. After graduating, he spent two years in Paris, France studying French, art, and literature. Next, he studied architecture and worked for a year at an architecture firm before entering the monastery. During his six years of formation in the monastery, Ignatius studied theology at the University of Dallas and the Gregorian University in Rome. Currently, he teaches art at the monastery’s prep school for boys and paints in his free time. Ignatius’ artwork goes in two different directions. His figural work is based mostly on historical artwork in which he strives to make contemporary artwork often with a Christian religious theme while maintaining elements of the historical work. His word paintings are set in a contemporary art tradition and have two basic elements. First, the piece must be able to stand on its own aesthetically apart from its legibility. It must be capable of being appreciated for the beauty of the lines, composition, forms, and colors. Second, these artistic features ought to communicate, support, and enhance the meaning of the text. Ignatius’ word paintings reveal his concern to bring meaning to his art through the use of texts from poetry and the Bible.