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Father William Hart McNichols is widely known as one of the world’s most gifted living religious artists and iconographers. A former Jesuit and student of the famed Franciscan iconographer Robert Lentz, Fr. Bill’s icons have been honored with exhibitions in major U.S. cities and the subject of a full-length documentary. Recently his years of ministry to the dying during the AIDS crisis in New York City were the focus of a podcast, and later a book, by journalist Michael O’Laughlin.
Through interviews with writer and theologian Chris Pramuk, Fr. Bill shares the moving story of his early loneliness and sense of being set apart for some purpose—a purpose realized in his twin vocations as priest and artist. From early childhood, his art expressed his inner life, with special attention to the beauty of the world, the vulnerability of children, and God’s compassionate solidarity with those who suffer. During his AIDS ministry, this took new focus with such works as his “AIDS Crucifixion.” Later, after apprenticeship with iconographer Robert Lentz, he began a new life, producing hundreds of icons of Christ, Mary, the saints, and many holy people of our time.
More than a catalog of an artist’s work All My Eyes See is a deep journey into the heart of a great spiritual teacher.
Ordained in 1979, Fr. William Hart McNichols was a member of the Society of Jesus from 1968-2002. He received a Master of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, and from 1983 to 1990 he worked in AIDS hospice ministry in Manhattan. In 1990 he moved to Albuquerque, NM to study with Robert Lentz and continues to live in Albuquerque as a priest of the Archdiocese.
Christopher Pramuk is Regis University Chair of Ignatian Thought and Imagination, and professor of theology at Regis University, Denver, CO. His six books include two award-winning studies of Thomas Merton.
