Nava
is
an
internationally
noted
painter
and
draughtsman.
He
studied
art
at
the
University
of
California
at
Santa
Barbara
and
did
his
graduate
work
in
Florence,
Italy.
His
work
is
found
in
numerous
private,
corporate
and
public
collections
throughout
the
United
States,
Europe
and
Japan,
including
the
National
Museum
of
American
Art
in
Washington,
D.C.,
the
Museum
of
Contemporary
Art
(MOCA),
Hawaii,
and
the
Triton
Museum
in
San
Jose,
California.
Throughout
his
career
as
a
painter
the
human
figure
has
been
at
the
heart
of
Nava's
work.
His
work
is
represented
in
such
important
publications
as
Post-Modernism:
The
New
Classicism
in
Art
and
Architecture
(Rizzoli,
New
York)
by
Charles
Jencks
who
coined
the
term
"post-modernism"
and
American
Realism
(Abrams,
New
York)
by
Edward
Lucie
Smith,
the
first
comprehensive
history
of
realist
painting
in
the
United
States.
Nava
has
created
large-scale
public
works,
including
"Prosephone,"
a
45'
wide
mural
for
the
Grain
Exchange
in
Tokyo,
Japan
and
Intersection,
a
56'
wide
fountain
sculpture
for
the
100
Brand
Boulevard
in
Glendale,
California.
In
1998
he
was
commissioned
by
the
Seattle
Symphony
to
paint
a
life-size,
double
portrait
of
Jack
and
Rebecca
Benaroya
for
the
new
Benaroya
Hall
in
downtown
Seattle.
When
he
first
was
invited
to
be
considered
for
the
Communion
of
Saints
tapestries,
Nava
recalls,
"It
would
have
fulfilled
my
dream
at
that
moment
to
have
been
given
one
chapel
and
to
do
one
small
piece
for
that
chapel."
When
he
learned
that
the
work
was
for
the
entire
300-foot
interior
nave
of
the
Cathedral,
he
realized,
"It
had
to
be
something
that
worked
in
a
very
coherent
way
with
the
architecture."
Owing
to
the
enormous
scale
and
pressing
time
requirements
of
the
project,
he
quickly
realized
that
he
would
need
a
technological
solution
to
realize
the
commission.
To
prepare
full-scale
"cartoons"
in
oil
and
by
hand
alone
would
take
several
years.
Nava
decided
to
use
computers
in
order
to
composite
myriad
separate
elements
that
could
be
layered
together
-
figures,
textures
and
colors
-
and
grouped
into
the
final
compositions.
Working
closely
with
Donald
Farnsworth,
a
noted
Bay
Area
artist,
printmaker,
papermaker
and
specialist
in
artistic
applications
of
digital
technology,
a
methodology
was
developed
whereby
a
digital
image
could
be
sent
directly
to
the
loom,
resulting
in
the
woven
tapestry.
The
process
involved
research
in
Belgium
with
the
weavers
at
the
Flanders
Tapestries
mill
and
numerous
woven
trials.
This
constant
testing
and
development
of
palettes
and
digital
techniques
was
done
simultaneously
with
the
painting
and
composing
of
135
figures
into
25
groups
for
the
Communion
of
Saints.
Nava
says,
"The
technology
made
it
possible.
However,
to
get
to
the
point
where
you
can
push
the
button
and
send
the
image
to
the
loom,
that
was
the
craziness."
The
Artists
Thought's
About
His
Work
The
artist
has
been
fascinated
that
the
commission
for
the
Cathedral
has
been
done
"completely
without
irony,"
and
that
the
message
of
the
image
and
the
message
of
the
Church
"is
a
message
of
hope,
redemption
and
meaning."
Nava
believes
these
are
ideas
that
have
been
frequently
dismissed
in
conventional
modern
art.
After
the
horrors
of
the
20th
century
-
the
World
Wars,
the
atomic
bomb
and
the
Holocaust
-
humanity
has
routinely
been
seen
pessimistically
as
"diseased
and
decadent,"
Nava
explains.
The
best
figurative
painters
of
our
time
have
made
great
works,
but
they
often
have
been
of
a
tragic
and
hopeless
image
of
humans,
if
not
a
critical
or
cynical
one.
The
Communion
of
Saints,
however,
is
exactly
the
opposite,
Nava
believes.
Its
theme
is
one
of
hope.
He
would
like
people
viewing
the
tapestries
"to
see
the
humanity
of
these
figures
and
feel
a
sense
of
connection
to
themselves."
Learn
more
about
the
TAPESTRIES.
