spring/summer 2008 - Juan Diego Catholic High School

Arts
By Their Own Hands
every year Juan Diego selects a
work of art from a senior student
to add to its permanent
collection. This year, three submissions
were made. The first is an oil
painting by Jessica Beere who won
Best of Show in the Fra Angelico Art
Festival this year. The second is an
intensely hued lino-cut block print by
Kaito Watanabe. The final submission
was executed three days before
Commencement by Eddy Santana.
All three are beautiful gifts to Juan
Diego and will be framed and hung
in the school.
When Senior Counselor Roxanne
Kammerer asked Eddy if he would be
willing to paint something, he grappled
with the idea, but was inspired
one night while visiting his grandfather.
Looking at the calloused hands
of Mike Gonzales, Eddy noted they
carried the deep grooves of 30 years of
labor for Kennecott mine. They also
possessed the expansive openness of a
generous volunteer who is always fixing
a neighbor’s fence or hefting a box
for the emergency food bank. Such
hands were the models for Eddy’s
oil painting that depicts the miracle
of Juan Diego at the moment the
saint unfolded roses from his robes.
The multitude of roses that fall from
Juan Diego CatholiC high SChool
www.jdchs.org · 801.984.7650
300 East 11800 South · Draper, Utah 84020
Saint Juan Diego’s hands are rich in
texture and color, symbolic of Eddy’s
diverse class members who were unified
in so many ways this year. Eddy
titled the work “Behold How Good
and Pleasant It Is When Friends Live
Together in Unity” from Psalm 133
- the commemorative passage selected
for their senior year theme.
NONPROFIT
ORGANIZATION
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
SALT LAKE CITY
UTAH
PERMIT #623
photo: Eddy Santana, Sr.