John Herreid
John Herreid is catalog manager at Ignatius Press. In addition to catalogs and ads, he has also worked on the cover design for many Ignatius Press books and DVDs. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and four children.
Posts from this author at the Novel Thoughts blog.
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Praise Be for Art and Craft
June 18, 2015 2:39 pm Leave a Comment
The encyclical is out. Laudato Si’ has had perhaps the most breathless build-up of any Church document in the past few decades. Having had the chance to read and reflect upon it, and given that I’m often thinking about writing and art, one aspect of the encyclical which struck home… Read more »
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Christopher Lee and Morally Serious Horror
June 12, 2015 2:23 pm 7 Comments
Christopher Lee as Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski in Pope John Paul II Sir Christopher Lee was an imposing figure to the end. After news of his death arrived I went online and found a video of a recent interview. Straight as a rail even in his 90s and dressed impeccably, he… Read more »
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Great Movies for Kids: Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid” and “The Circus”
June 4, 2015 11:21 pm 3 Comments
In 1922 a young writer named Myles Connolly wrote a piece for the Catholic magazine America titled “Chesterton’s Cap and Bells”. Connolly had just met the great writer, and he starts off by comparing Chesterton to another Englishman: Charlie Chaplin: When Max Eastman asked Charlie Chaplin what it is he… Read more »
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One Weird Trick to Appreciate Art
May 19, 2015 11:45 am 3 Comments
“Oh, is that an allusion to the Fall?” “The what?” “The Fall of Adam and Eve.” “Uh, no.” “Is it Persephone in the underworld?” “Who?” It was around ten years ago. I was at an open studio event held in a huge old warehouse in the SOMA neighborhood of San… Read more »
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Mother’s Day Is for Remembering
May 7, 2015 4:11 pm 6 Comments
Reading with my mother, 1979. My mother never lived to see any of her grandchildren. Each year as Mother’s Day rolls around, I’m reminded again of this fact. She died in the month of May when many of her own children were still young, surrounded by family in the living… Read more »
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Wolfe, Innocence, Literature, and Rock Monsters
April 30, 2015 11:37 am Leave a Comment
In the past week I’ve ended up saving a number of links to read and re-read, and in the hopes that others may also get some enjoyment and interest from them I’m sharing them with you. First up, there’s a short piece in the New Yorker about science-fiction writer Gene… Read more »
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Introducing Children to Art
April 21, 2015 11:16 am 1 Comment
My daughter and oldest son have very different takes on this portrait by Raphael. A while back I was asked for some thoughts on art, beauty, and God. A few of those comments made their way into this nice article on beauty by Anamaria Scaperlanda Biddick in Our Sunday Visitor…. Read more »
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Entertainments
March 26, 2015 5:35 pm 1 Comment
The great novelist Graham Greene used to divide his work into “novels” and “entertainments”, with books such as The Power and the Glory falling into the former category and ones such as The Human Factor into the latter. To my mind, some of his “entertainments” are every bit as good… Read more »
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Great Films for Kids: Song of the Sea
March 13, 2015 9:08 am 5 Comments
Animator Tomm Moore’s vision is the vision of old Irish folktales, where saints and heroes, fairies and angels, monsters and missionaries comingle in stories and legend. His first film, The Secret of Kells, is a fanciful and wondrous imagining of the creation of the Book of Kells. His second, Song… Read more »
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Great Films for Kids: The Secret of Kells
March 6, 2015 9:05 am 13 Comments
If the world is going to ruin, what is the purpose of creating beautiful things? That’s a question you might find interwoven in the plot of an art film aimed at adults. But here it is in a movie for kids. And it’s better expressed here than in many other… Read more »