Artists have always been drawn to the figure as subject matter throughout the in order to explore unknown parts of the human drama and have interpreted it in many different ways on canvas. To painter D.C. Morale, exploring this focus in her work helps her understand “people and human nature better emotionally.”

The subject also leaves room for much expression within the medium. Morale uses oil paints, because it easier to throw down the colors and create expressive, abstract marks across the canvas. Broad strokes of color differentiate folds of cloth and variant hues in skin, while drips and solid colors activate the negative space. The result is rich, earthy portraits with an edgy, restless feeling; meditations on chatrooms and grace within a sea-changing, modern world.

Morale graduated from the Art Center College of Design in California with a BFA in illustration. Since then, she has worked, as a graphic designer to support her painting career, and lived in Texas, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City. Her projects have included everything from publication design to corporate marketing. Graphic design has helped Morale’ become a better painter, as it “helps with color relationships, shapes, composition, and mass. Painting has also affected my design.”

Morale’ offers this advice for someone going into the arts: “persevere, practice a lot and learn from other painters — never stop trying to learn or try new things. Try to be your own person and experiment with new techniques. Promote yourself 50% of the time and get a core job to pay the rent!”

It is not happenstance that the word “zakhor,” the Hebrew word for remember, appears in the Bible over one hundred and fifty times because the ancient Hebrews were commanded to remember. This commandment was often repeated so that the Hebrews would never forget the countless times God’s faithfulness had brought them as a people safely through. They were never to forget the stories of their exile in Egypt, their deliverance from slavery, the words of the prophets – those who demonstrated faith and obedience, and those who failed. The act of remembering is the foundation of the Christian sacrament of communion. The words, “Do this in remembrance of me,” are spoken, when partaking of the bread and the cup — the body and the blood — in remembrance of Christ’s death upon a cross of wood: the final payment for our debt of sin and separation from almighty God.

How we remember – that is, what is used to trigger our memory – in ancient times may have come in the form of processions, banners, a newly dug well or rocks piled high to configure an altar or sculpture. In today’s postmodern times we utilize memorials – both public as well as the personal home shrine, movies, ephemera such as postcards, historical books, or even paintings. “The prophets of old were commanded by God in faith and love to set up an altar or a memorial,” Robert Eustace, a sacred artist from New Jersey explained, “so that the stories of miracles and great deeds would be passed down and linger in the hearts of subsequent generations to come.”

This is the foundation of Robert Eustace’s paintings and altarpiece constructions. His work is rooted and grounded in an ancient faith and has matured in a metabolically paced and chaotic world that finds itself in a state of constant flux, future uncertainty and redefinition. The results are a series of images that cause the viewer to pause, consider and perhaps to remember in the midst of a technological age.



In The Church at the End of the 20th Century (above), Eustace employs architectural structure and pattern to grapple with philosophies of time. “I was studying the ideas of existential (or eternal) time, creativity and destiny written by the Christian Existentialist philosopher, Nicholas Berdyaev (1874-1948),” Eustace said, “this work is a meditation on the act of waiting – our earthly longing for transcendence out of this present world of sin, limitations and death, and into the marvelous light – staring off into the deep space of night through an ornate window (or a portal that receives and emanates the Divine Mercy and Grace). The window signifies a metaphor for the Church – or Christ’s body – which is composed of fitly joined stones (the saints of God) into a magnificent, everlasting, eternal edifice or building.”


Eustace’s subjects don’t derive from ‘self-expressed ideas’, but from meditations within Judeo-Christian and other sacred texts. Therefore his ideas of time and memory are within a context that believes that God created and operates inside of time, and yet is also outside of time. Humans dwell on a physical plane and travel on a linear (or historically conscious) path – event-by-event – within time and space, from birth to death. Humans also travel on a cyclical journey marked by patterns of daily to yearly ritual as well as the lifelong rites of passage. Existential time can simply be described as that timeless moment when a ‘drop of eternity’ crosses over, intersects with and converges with time and space, or the linear/cyclical plane. Existential time is a moment of forever.

Memory and imagination transcend linear/cyclical time. Something new can be learned of the past, while also affecting the present and future. Eudora Welty said in her book One Writer’s Beginnings, “It is our inward journey that leads us through time – forward or back, seldom in a straight line, most often spiraling. Each of us is moving, changing, with respect to others. As we discover, we remember; remembering, we discover; and most intensely do we experience this when our separate journeys converge.” In Eustace’s work the convergence is focused on the relationship of God and man, specifically in the intersection that meets with Jesus Christ.

In Pairidaeza, boxed, open spaces along the lower sides of the work, give the idea of blueprints – perhaps something that will be built in the future – and alludes to the house that Jesus described to his disciples before his death. “In my father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you (NIV/John 14:2),” this is an allusion to a time that has not yet come. In the same piece we have symbols related to the beginning of time (the Garden of Eden) and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is in the center. “At it’s roots the viewer can find Adam and Eve with the serpent, standing in front of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, from which the much larger good tree seems to emanate,” Eustace said, “The colorful, jewel-like Tree of Life, fills the entire center of the artwork and is surrounded by an eight sided octagonal expanse of immense open space, or the open parklands. Outside of that are the bright golden yellow walkways that meander everywhere and the dark blue waterways that spill off the edge of the artwork and into the four Cardinal Directions (north, south, east and west). These waters – sourced here at this model Eden – travel throughout the nations giving life, healing and nourishment to the world. At the top of the painting/construction, there are numerous scriptures that speak of the story of ‘original oneness,’ sin and separation through the process of the mystery of iniquity or kosmos diabolikos, and then through Christ’s Incarnation and Death/Resurrection – the return path back to oneness with God.” In essence, that salvation through Christ was destined from the beginning of time and flows throughout history.

Robert Eustace was born in1957 and grew up in New York City, in the Inwood section of northwestern Manhattan. Like many artists, his childhood fostered what would be his vocation in life and he was influenced early on by lush gardens and large expanses of parklands that flourished around his urban neighborhood, the Christian faith and his local church, the explosive tensions and cultural developments within 1960-1970’s America, and the relationship to his neighbor and best friend’s father: the expressionist painter, Peter Dean.

Peter Dean and his family occupied the flat across the hall, and Eustace was invited on many occasions into their rooms filled with bright oil paintings. He was privy to Dean’s energetic explosive style and was witness to works in progress. This open invitation not only introduced him to new ideas in painting that were congruent to New York’s atmosphere of the 1960’s, but also set the stage for his own gentle response to meaning, imagination and creative environments. Eustace describes Dean’s work as “wildly magical panoramic scenes from the bizarre carnival pageant and fantastic drama of life – painting as mystical theater.” For a child of Eustace’s character this was an intense draw and he enjoyed the moments that he shared with the Dean family. “I always saw the Dean’s as special people who were refreshingly different from all of the other friends and neighbors in our immediate family circle. They did not seem to have the same hang-ups and frustrations as most of the people that I knew. Looking back at the times of the early 1960’s, in my mind the Dean’s were most definitely pre-hippie or beat in lifestyle.”

In college Eustace experienced a spiritual awakening that deepened his faith and set free his aesthetic sensibilities. He described this as a time period when “his soul experienced an immediate transformation – it had passed from an old deadened state of black and white that was totally void of color – overnight – to a new state of vibrant color and eternal spring.” While he considers himself as someone that had always felt God’s presence in his life, this time garnered a deep inner change and immediately all his senses flew into high gear. It is from this experience that a prolific series of paintings based on gardens emerged, and so did his view that being an artist is a calling – a vocation – and not just a nine-to-five job.

“Over time and through years of prayer, study and art making and life’s ups and downs, I began, and to this day, continue to hammer out a sacred art vision,” Eustace said, adding to this idea that art making isn’t limited to contemplative thought, but is also about prophetic vision. “As a sacred artist, I am not limited to self-expression, which to my thinking just begins and ends with me! This is not a negation or obliteration of my personhood, rather, in the midst of deep creative process(es) there is plenty of room for who I am and was created to be. Yet, I am tapping into something far greater than myself and am availing myself to be an open channel (or conduit) to dialogue with, receive and convey in earthly materials something of the LORD. HE is my source and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit – lives within me! I have learned to quiet myself to be able to listen to these internal nudges – go-aheads – spiritual promptings. HE is also clearly evident within the Creation – though fallen, groaning in travail, waiting for the Sons of God to be revealed – and then made over into the New Heaven and the New Earth.”

Eustace’s ideas were forged during a period in American art where religious and government establishments were considered obsolete or untrustworthy. Religion, especially Christianity, was seen as a trap that kept an artist from experiencing their full self in expression. “Much of the modernist tenets in art called for an art of dry, formal and pristine devices which lack real life and vitality,” Eustace said, “gone was a sense of the narrative, of animated storytelling and larger than life heroes, of history — and in its place was a dead and lifeless formalism. It really wasn’t until the current postmodern times of today that the slate was cleaned and the doors now open to all sorts of creative philosophies and possibilities — including ideas of history, storytelling, deep spirituality and beauty.”

Eustace chose a different approach. “Because of the Incarnation (Christ as man dwelling among us) and the Resurrection (Christ raised up to set us free from sin and death) the artist of faith has been set free to create within the large framework of prayer, study, thinking, working — throughout the course of this life and its translation into the next! Artistic excellence is to be passionately pursued. Lastly, the idea of beauty is something that should be honored, upheld and restored to the dignity of its rightful place as it relates to art and the sacred. During much of the modern epoch in art and throughout culture, beauty has been met with mistrust, ugliness and irrationality.”

Today Eustace resides in New Jersey and finds solace in the meditative quietude outside of the city. While he admits that the bustle of New York helped to trigger and foster his growth as a young artist, today, it is not necessary for him to have constant access to this type of creative environment anymore. “If anything, the city in the early 21st century, provides far too much confusing diversity of choices, over-stimulation, clutter, chaos and noise — so that one cannot hear oneself think, or truly hear one’s inner voice.” He now finds strength in stillness, corresponding with friends, long walks, and even in creating his own homemade soup recipes. It is in the place of stillness that he is able to focus his thoughts, search through a myriad of aesthetic angles and create new works.

His latest series, Aenigmate, are an ongoing work of mixed media altarpiece constructions. “These images likened to illuminated manuscript pages, reliquaries and icons, stem from my interest in Medieval, conceptual and narrative modes. The series title Aenigmate means: At this present time (being earthbound and limited in finitude) to see and ascertain only the dimmest of shadows of what truly is and what is to come; like looking through a dark glass. I seek to convey something of the mysterium tremendum – or a visual approximation of the experience of awe, divine mercy and terrible beauty.”

In the work Image: Seed of Divine Life, Eustace uses common images in female reproduction to remind us of the conception of God becoming man: The Incarnation becomes flesh with blood and bones, but remains mysterious — swirling color and spirit. The use of metals along the rim and sides of the work harks back to medieval times and draws upon mystical, abstract representations of the creation of life.

Keep in mind that these works are meant to be altarpieces, which is a form of art created ages before to illuminate teachings and worship within the church. However Eustace’s work is on display in galleries and other venues that exist outside the church, and the altarpiece removed from the altar is brought into a modern space, with modern viewers. The meditative quality doesn’t change. The viewer is brought in as a participant, not as a student that will learn a lesson, but as a fellow traveler through time, that is beckoned in the quiet of the gallery to stop and contemplate memory.

To remember was and is considered a blessing, and to forget was and is considered a curse. In a world obsessed with celebrity and the newest fads, Robert Eustace calls us back to remember – that there is a well spring deeper and longer than we can ever can imagine running through and outside of time, rooted in an unchanging love from the eternal God.

To view more of Robert Eustace’s work, please visit his website at sainteustacefineart.com.