Father Emmanuel “Manny” Torres, associate pastor at Christ the King Church in Little Rock and St. Francis of Assisi Church in Little Italy, has been fascinated by art for as long as he can remember.
“It started with art,” he said. “I started painting and drawing. I remember as a kid, I laid down in my bed and just started drawing the images on the blanket. … I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. My notes in school were always full of drawings.”
Father Torres, 38, always wanted to learn to paint but didn’t think he would be able to do it, so he never took a class for it — until he came to the United States.
“I got here in eighth grade (in 1999), and I took classes in Mexico, but the classes over there were not the same. … So I always took classes, but I never took a painting class until I got to my senior year.”
It was then that Father Torres realized what a gift from God painting was.
“I’m not a great artist, but God gave me this talent where I just start painting,” he said.
Senior year of high school brought challenges to Father Torres, but art gave him hope.
“I would hide in my art,” he said. “I would say, ‘OK, God gave me this, and I’m special to him because he gave me this talent.’”
When Father Torres entered the seminary, then vocations director Msgr. Scott Friend encouraged him to continue painting.
“He actually asked me to do a painting for the silent auction for Taste of Faith (in 2017),” he said.
Father Torres overcame his nerves and created what ended up being one of his favorite pieces with supplies that Msgr. Friend got for him.
When Father Torres arrived at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana in 2016, he heard about an elective course on iconography taught by a Benedictine nun. Information about the different techniques and materials piqued his interest.
But he soon learned that iconography was different from many of the other art forms he had experimented with over the years.
“I signed up for that course, and I was so excited about it. I was looking for images of what I wanted to paint, and I was thinking about the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” Father Torres said. “… I went to the first class, and I told my professor, ‘I want to draw this.’ And she said no. I was a little upset in that moment, because I was like, I know how to paint. … And she said, ‘You are not ready to paint Jesus.’ … Later, when I went to my friend, I realized, OK, I’m not ready. I need to let her teach me — I need to do whatever she says. … (Iconography) has a process … and it’s a long process.”
Father Torres said you have to prepare the wood, then the base layer of gesso, which is a mixture of chalk, glue made from rabbit skin and water. The gesso is applied in several layers, each layer being allowed to dry and lightly sanded before the next is added. The artist then sketches the image on the gessoed surface using a pencil or light charcoal.
Traditional icons are painted with egg tempera, a method where pigments are mixed with egg yolk and water. The egg yolk acts as a binder, holding the pigments in place. The artist will then begin layering colors, which are typically natural earth pigments mixed with egg yolk. Sometimes, gold leaf is applied to details such as halos, backgrounds or words in the icon.
For Father Torres, the most important step in the process is praying.
“All of the process of iconography is praying,” he said. “My professor said that I wasn’t spiritually ready to paint Jesus, because in iconography, we believe that in an icon of a saint, the presence of the saint is there. So, while she hurt my ego, I realized she was right. I’m not ready for that.”
Father Torres’ professor gave him several potential references to choose from, and he selected the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus.
“When I went to classes, usually people said, ‘Oh, that’s good, you did it well.’ And they liked what I do,” he said. “… But my professor said, ‘Oh, this is decent.’ … She was not being mean or rude, because in iconography, we are striving for perfection.”
Father Torres said he looks for the mistakes in his work now — they are more visible to him after following his former professor’s advice.
“Even though I don’t have contact with her… when I see her icons, they are more beautiful. I told her one time that I love her icons; they’re way different from mine. She said that hers were not perfect. When I saw her teacher’s work, I was able to see what she meant. It takes a lot of time. … One teacher said he still has a long way to go, and he had been making icons for 20, 30 years.”
Since then, Father Torres, who was ordained in 2021, has donated his icons to auctions and raffles for the churches and schools that he has been assigned. He said iconography is a way for him to pray.
“When I do art, I forget about everything,” Father Torres said. “… It’s so calm, so relaxed. I use it as a way of prayer, where I ignore what surrounds me when I focus on something like painting. … I put prayer in the moment of painting.”
Father Torres’ art has been especially helpful to him as he navigates his health diagnosis, which was the reason for his recent move to Christ the King.
“I knew I was sick — I’ve had kidney problems since I was young … but the doctor had said everything was fine,” he said. “When I became a seminarian, they did a physical exam, and they noticed that my kidneys have a lot of protein. So they checked my kidneys, and they were in stage three kidney failure in 2010. Two years ago, they told me that my kidneys had been declining and that in three or five years, I would need a transplant.”
Father Torres will likely undergo dialysis until he can find a kidney transplant.
“Sometimes I feel anxious because I feel too tired, and I cannot do my ministry as I think I should. Two symptoms I have are exhaustion and a lack of concentration. Sometimes, when I talk to people, I feel I cannot connect with them, which is very frustrating.”
Father Torres’ diagnosis was made public in September, and parishioners from his former parishes eagerly supported him, checking on him and praying for him.
When he has the time and energy, Father Torres paints icons, finding comfort in the hobby.
“I have my art room in a big closet. Father (Juan) Guido (pastor) had helped me to put in an art studio. I love it. I was in there the other day, and it just relaxes me,” he said. “And it’s more than relaxing; it puts me at peace, which I love. I love that I’m working. I’ve been working on two icons for a long time for Father Ben Riley, and now I can finish them.”