Picture of the Week #56 "Epiphany of Beauty"

Picture of the Week #56 "Epiphany of Beauty" Vatican City, Italy 2009 Signed and Stamped

Before my Audience with Pope Benedict XVI to hear his "Address to Artists" in the Sistine Chapel, I waited just outside in this most majestic room of sheer beauty and overwhelming power and grace as two lone Swiss Guards watched the invited artists file in. I found it peculiar that there was only one video camera on a tripod in the corner with two cameramen, but they did not film us, the invited artists. Nor anyone else for that matter. Perhaps I am so used to Hollywood and cameras being shoved in your face at the opening of a shopping bag. But here, at this historic event, no cameras were rolling as we entered. Just the opposite. So, I took it upon myself to record everything that was going on as best as I could. After all this was the first time since the Renaissance that a Pope hosted artists in the Sistine Chapel. As I humbly told my Publicist, Jack Scanlan, years ago the Pope invited Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael, and now he was inviting me. He said, I can work with that.