The Shower Curtain Project
A Franciscan Marriage of Art and Stewardship
Can you believe the large-scale prints decorating St. Clare Hall are actually shower curtains? It might sound surprising at first, but it is a story of how a wonderfully Franciscan idea—one that is beautiful, yet simple and affordable—helped us remain good stewards of our parish resources.
The Spark: A Home Experiment
The idea began at the home of Fidel Cuellar-Torres, our Director of Music and Communications. His wife, Gabriela, was searching for affordable artwork to fill a large wall in their house. She stumbled upon a blog post describing how to order art-themed shower curtains and mount them over custom frames.
Fidel and Gabriela tested the concept in their own living room with great success. Seeing the potential, Fidel brought the idea to Father Jim. Knowing our parish is blessed with incredibly skilled woodworkers, they realized we could elevate the concept by creating custom-made oak floating frames to match the woodwork in the church. Father Jim approved a test run, and the project was born.
The Execution: Faith in the Works
The first phase involved four paintings and a true team effort:
Craftsmanship: Erwin Rehme hand-crafted the inner pine frames and the elegant outer oak frames.
Sourcing: Fidel ordered the high-quality prints from fineartamerica.com.
Assembly: Louise Kubier (our former Business Manager and a skilled quilter) and her husband Larry meticulously ironed the curtains. They were joined by Jeff Kelly (Facilities Manager) and Mike Flemming (maintenance super volunteer) to wrap and staple the fabric to the frames.
Installation: Jeff and Mike handled the final hanging.
The result? Each framed painting cost only about $150 in materials—a fraction of the cost of traditional large-scale art.
Expanding the Vision
Following the success of the first four pieces, the project expanded. We added the iconic portrait of St. Francis by Thomas Celano in the staircase and began planning for something even more ambitious: two parallel series of art.
St. Clare Hall
We envisioned a rotating display of the Mysteries of the Rosary alongside a fixed series depicting The Life of St. Francis. To keep up with the demand for woodworking, Shawn Mauritz joined Erwin in crafting some of the frames.
The team faced a unique design challenge: How do we swap paintings easily and where do we store the ones not in use? After a few brainstorming sessions, the design team (Jeff, Mike, and Fidel) came up with a solution: they fixed the outer frames to the wall and used magnets to allow the inner frames to be swapped out easily. When a painting isn't on display in St. Clare Hall, it finds a home in the hallways near the classrooms and atria downstairs, ensuring no beauty is ever hidden away.
Who are the Artists?
Here is the full list of painting we currently have in display.
Why Giotto?
You may notice a distinct style in the St. Francis series. While many artists have depicted our patron saint, the work of Giotto Di Bondone (1267-1337) is uniquely revealing.
When the Basilica of St. Francis was built in Assisi, the Franciscan Order commissioned 28 frescoes to depict Francis’ life based on the biographies by Thomas Celano and St. Bonaventure. These frescoes, painted between 1297 and 1300, are widely credited to Giotto. By displaying these images, we honor our Franciscan heritage and help parishioners walk alongside St. Francis in his journey.
Celano’s Portrait of St. Francis.
In addition to Giotto, we have included works by other masters of that era, including:
Duccio Di Buoninsegna and Fra Angelico
Giovanni Di Paolo
Giovanni Cimabue, whose iconic painting of St. Francis now hangs in our staircase, visible from the Narthex.
What’s Next?
The "Beauty" of our parish continues to grow. Our Lent series will soon be assembled, with the goal of having it displayed by Ash Wednesday.
Stay tuned to this blog as we continue to share the stories behind the art that inspires our worship!
