Shining A Light on Inspiration

St. Francis by Mark Bleakley

Inspiration comes to artists in many forms throughout their lives, and occasionally from unlikely places. MPB Arts reporter Ron Brown tells us about a Vicksburg artist who has found a divine combination.

It doesn’t happen often, but every once in awhile, 34-year-old Mark Bleakley finds himself going to his local book store and heading to the section on comic books.

“This is pretty nice art work. They do a lot with light, and much more shaded…"

Spending hours with vividly colored super heroes is a part of Bleakleys childhood that he treasures.

“Oh this is much more three dimensional than they used to be…”

Mark grew up in Pittsburgh not only as an avid fan of comic books, but also as an aspiring artist.

“There were about four of us kids that were drawing Transformer comic books , I guess because Transformers were easy to draw, they were boxes. But I enjoyed more people, I enjoyed drawing more people than that, and so it wasn’t long before I was doing science fiction comic books, with horrible stories.. But everyone was always impressed with the artwork in them.”

That was when Bleakely was a young boy. When he became a man, he put away childish things… sort of…

Bleakley now lives in Vicksburg where he is an Anglican priest at Holy Cross Church. He says even though he loved drawing superhero comics as a boy, he knew he was destined to do something more with his life.”

“From the time I was ten I knew I was called into the ministry and studied in a Baptist school to be a minister. I went through college, Bible school for that. But it took me several years to find where God was actually calling me to serve and so I graduated from an Anglican seminary in 2004 and have been assisting as a priest and now am a rector of this parish here.”

Mark Bleakley doesn’t just preach the Gospel. He draws it as well. He didn’t actually put his love for comic books and graphic art away for good. He just set it aside until he found a way to use it again. And today Mark Bleakley the comic book enthusiast, turned minister has found a way to join two childhood callings into one. He designs, and builds beautiful stained glass windows. In a small room in the 1868 convent that houses his church, Mark cuts the brightly colored glass that he makes himself. With it, he creates heroic images, just like he did as a boy. Most of his clients, not surprisingly, are churches so his topic inspiration comes from the Bible. But his graphic illustrations are inspired from another source - comic books.

“I’m really happy with being able to kind of blend that contemporary graphic element with ancient icons. The ancient symbols and icons… it’s a good match. Ecclesiastical art is kind of stain glass that I’ve been focusing on because the subject matter is my love and my passion.”

That Bleakley has been able to draw a connection between the marvels of the Bible and Marvel comic book characters is not that far fetched, he says. Comic book stories aren’t created out of thin air. Many have roots in classic literature.

“They were at least pointing to heroic things, heroic images. I can’t say that they’re all that moral, but they’re a lot like the old Greek and Roman mythologies. They have heroes that are pretty dubious in their character but they are trying to reach for something.”

And that’s what Bleakley is trying to do with his stained glass window art… reach for that inspiring message and inspirational images that perhaps shine a light on some kind of new understanding. And appreciation not only for the good book, but the comic book as well. For MPB News, I’m Ron Brown.