Valerie Brown

I create paintings and etchings for use as greeting cards and posters. Joséphin Péladan’s “Manifesto of the Rosicrucians”, 1892, follows:
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Artist, you are a priest. Art is the great mystery, and if your endeavoring leads to a masterpiece, then a ray of the divine shines down as if on an altar. O true presence of the divinity, you who shine to us from the sublime names: Vinci, Michelangelo, Beethoven, Wagner.

Artist, you are a king. Art is the true kingdom. If your hand has drawn a perfect line, the cherubim themselves come down from heaven and see themselves in it as if in a mirror. Spiritual drawing, soulful line, filled form, you give physical shape to our dreams: Samothrace and St. John, Sixtina and Cenacolo, Parsifal, Ninth Symphony, Notre-Dame.

Artist, you are a magician. Art is the great miracle and offers proof of immortality. Who still doubts? Giotto touched the wounds of St. Francis, the Virgin appeared to Fra Angelico, and Rembrandt proved the raising of Lazarus. Absolute refutation of all pedantic sophistries: Moses is doubted, but then Michelangelo comes; Jesus is not recognized, but then Leonardo comes. Everything is profaned, but immutable holy art continues to pray. O ineffable, highly serene sublimity, always radiant holy grail, monstrance, and relic, invincible banner, almighty art, art-god, I revere you on my knees, you last ray from above shining down on our decay…” (from Joséphin Péladan’s “Manifesto of the Rosicrucians”, [1892]).

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