A Catholic artist from Arizona has been selected by the U.S. State Department to have her sacred art displayed at the residence of U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch as part of a long-running cultural diplomacy initiative that places American art in diplomatic settings around the world.
Ruth Stricklin, a painter, is among the artists featured in the Art in Embassies program, which curates exhibitions of American art for embassies and ambassadorial residences. Stricklin spoke with Zeale News about her experience in an April 18 interview.
From Alaska’s wilderness to the Vatican walls
Stricklin said her love of art began as a love of beauty, shaped by her childhood in rural Alaska, where she grew up surrounded by sweeping landscapes and the northern lights.
From her bedroom window, she could see the Alaska Range; she recalled moments as simple as waiting for the school bus, watching snow-covered trees or the sky shift overhead, as early encounters with something she understood as “a gift from a loving creator, who took delight in my joy at seeing it.”
“The transcendent beauty of the landscape was a part of my everyday life,” she told Zeale News.
Her recognition of beauty as a transcendental pointing beyond itself would eventually lead her far from Alaska and into the heart of the Catholic Church.
‘Like walking into heaven’
Raised in a small Nazarene church with no religious imagery, Stricklin said she did not initially connect beauty with faith. That changed when she traveled to Europe as a teenager and stepped into her first Gothic cathedral in Toledo, Spain.
“It was like walking into heaven,” she said. “The beauty of the vaulted ceilings, stained glass, and carvings moved me to want to fall on my knees and worship.”
She would later come to see that experience as an encounter with “the theology of the Catholic Church in built form.”
Years later, while working at a Catholic high school, that memory resurfaced when she was asked to paint a mural backdrop for Mass. Under the guidance of a chaplain, she began studying the tradition of Catholic sacred art, from iconography to Byzantine mosaics, and said she was “slowly being catechized, first by the art, and also by the priest!”
“I was learning, through studying what made sacred art beautiful and captivating, what the liturgy really was,” she said. “When we hung the finished murals and I saw it all come together in the Mass, revealing the eternal sacrifice of Christ to the Father, I had a moment of revelation of the True Presence in the Eucharist.”
“I knew God was calling me to become Catholic,” she said.
The image she painted, Christ Pantocrator from the Book of Revelation, remains central to her work. It also inspired the name she and her husband chose when they founded their studio in 2014: New Jerusalem Studios, a reference to the vision of heaven “coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
A shared vocation
Stricklin shared that though her husband, Geoff Stricklin, is not a painter, he plays a central role in shaping the studio’s work.
“My husband may not be a painter, but I think he has a more artistic soul than even I do,” she said, adding that he helped her articulate her vocation early on. “He was instrumental in helping me discover my story and how God had been calling me and preparing me over my entire life for this vocation.”
Geoff Stricklin, who holds a master’s degree in liturgy from the Liturgical Institute at Mundelein Seminary, brings theological and liturgical expertise to the studio’s projects. The couple met shortly after her conversion, while both were connected to the institute.
She said his background in Church teaching helps guide the conceptual foundation of her work.
“We often discuss subject matter and themes before I begin my projects,” she said.
In addition to teaching theology at Xavier College Prep, a Catholic high school in Phoenix where Stricklin painted her first mural series, Geoff Stricklin manages the business side of the studio, allowing his wife to focus on painting and design.
Selected works and their meaning
Stricklin said she learned her work had been chosen for the State Department’s Art in Embassies program through an email from Sara Burch, the Vatican ambassador’s wife.
“In May of last year, Sara Burch reached out to me herself and explained the program,” Stricklin said, adding that she was already familiar with Sara’s husband through CatholicVote. “It seemed unbelievable to me that they had chosen three of my artworks to be featured in their residence in Rome.”
Over the following year, Stricklin worked with Sarah and her team to coordinate the installation.
“Seeing the works finally installed was a thrill, and I feel very honored and blessed to be included in their carefully chosen collection,” she said, adding that the selection reflects “a growing liturgical renewal that is very worthy of celebrating.”
Each of the three works emerged from different commissions but they are unified by a theological focus shaped in collaboration with the ambassador’s team.
“When I receive a commission, I enter into a collaboration with the patron, and we explore possible themes together,” she said. “The result is a richly theological work that is deeply meaningful to that community but hopefully also timeless and universal.”
Her painting of the Holy Family was originally commissioned by the Diocese of Phoenix for its 50th anniversary and completed in 2019. Rendered in oil and influenced by 16th-century Latin American colonial art, the work draws on the tradition surrounding Our Lady of Guadalupe and depicts Mary, Joseph, and Christ during the flight into Egypt, presenting the family as a reflection of the Trinity and emphasizing Joseph’s role as a strong and protective father.
Her depiction of Saint Gabriel, drawn from a larger sanctuary mural at Sacred Heart Parish in Phoenix, blends iconography with elements of Western realism. She said she only later learned of the archangel’s connection to diplomacy.
“I only learned from Sara Burch that St. Gabriel is the patron saint of diplomats, which was a wonderful discovery,” she said.
The third work, Eternal Sacrifice, was originally created as a large-scale backdrop for St. Mary’s High School in Phoenix. The piece presents Christ on the Cross as the New Temple, glorified as he offers himself to the Father, surrounded by angels and saints, with the Virgin Mary depicted at the base of the Cross as the New Eve.
The purpose of sacred art
Stricklin said her work is grounded in a distinct understanding of sacred art, one ordered toward worship rather than personal expression.
“Sacred art is very different from other kinds of art. Its purpose is to serve liturgical worship, so it must clearly show what is happening in the liturgy,” she said. “It must also be radiantly beautiful, revealing the glory of God and the truth of our faith.”
She described sacred art as having a “sacramental quality,” making present a heavenly reality that is usually invisible and pointing viewers toward their eternal destiny.
“Sacred art is not meant to entertain us, excite us, or manipulate our emotions, but to reveal the truth and goodness of Christ’s sacrifice each time we celebrate the Mass,” she said.
Ultimately, she said, the goal is to encounter the Lord.
“My hope is that my work would allow people to encounter the Love of God, the perfect order of His mind which invites us into healing and integration with this divine order, and to call them into their own participation in His mission to redeem the world,” she said, adding that she prays the Holy Spirit will be present to viewers in a new way each time they view the art.
She said her style draws from the Church’s artistic tradition, including iconography, medieval and Gothic art, and figures such as Fra Angelico and Giotto, as well as the Beuronese school, which blends Eastern and Western influences. She describes her work as “essentially sacramental,” uniting beauty, theology, and liturgy in a way that both reveals truth and calls the viewer toward deeper conversion.
Stricklin’s art in the Vatican’s exhibition can be viewed here.