Photos courtesy of Brother Kevin Hamzik, OFM
The journey of Brother Kevin Hamzik, OFM, began at Padua Franciscan High School in Parma, Ohio, where he met the friars. He was inspired by classes on St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare. After graduating, he participated in a missionary trip to the Dominican Republic, organized by the school. There, he met Lorenzo, a local artist who created art in a modest studio in a village with great poverty. From Lorenzo, young Kevin learned valuable lessons about faith and creativity.
Growing up in Broadview Heights, Ohio, near Cleveland, Kevin Hamzik became fascinated with cars. His Dad and late grandfather would take him to auto shows, and they would do repairs together.
Young Kevin would draw what he saw and envisioned a day when he would design vehicles.
That never happened. Now, his acrylic paintings and prints feature those traversing the U.S.-Mexico border. While migrants are often blamed for crimes and scoffed at by powerful politicians, Hamzik offers a different take. His paintings see them as icons, models of determination and faith in a God whom they perceive as watching over them as they pass through the deserts of Mexico and Arizona.
“I’m trying to make a comment. These are people living lives who can be seen as saintly,” said Kevin who now, at age 28, is known as Brother Kevin Hamzik, OFM, a friar absorbed in art inspired by the people he has encountered in ministry.
“They showed me patience,” he said, noting the kindness of migrants in working to understand his Midwest American fledgling Spanish. “They were so full of peace and faith in God.”
Brother Kevin’s Franciscan journey began at Padua Franciscan High School, where he first encountered friars. He became inspired by the courses he took on Francis of Assisi and St. Clare. At the end of his high school years, he went on a school-sponsored mission trip to the Dominican Republic.
There he met Lorenzo, a local artist, who humbly produced work out of a shack of a studio in a poverty-stricken village.
Brother Kevin isn’t sure that he made much impact on the people of the Dominican Republic on that high school mission trip, but he knows they made an impact on him, particularly through the artistry of Lorenzo.
Young Kevin took in lessons about faith and artistry from Lorenzo.
“He lived a simple life. He lived in the poorest community but seemed happy and full of faith. He was proud of his work and happy with it. His work made the people happy,” Brother Kevin recalled, noting he wanted to be something like his Dominican mentor.
After high school graduation, he went to St. Bonaventure University, the Franciscan school in Olean, New York. He studied art, with the grand plan of becoming an automobile designer. That plan gradually faded away.
So much for car design.
His art began more and more to address spiritual themes. The possibility of a religious vocation tugged at him.
School trips to Assisi and Rome followed the footsteps of St. Francis. When he returned to Olean, the friars on campus offered a friendly space for meals and fellowship.
“Being in Italy, I began to see the spiritual side of my life,” he said. His academic advisor suggested he focus his art on spiritual themes. In his first year of Franciscan formation, he served at the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in Washington, offering tours. At the same time, he worked with the Franciscan Action Network, concentrating on social action issues, such as the environment and economic justice.
One of his ministry experiences as a friar included a stint in southern Arizona, where he worked with migrants, crossing the border each day into Mexico to assist at a shelter there. Work at the highly-charged border “opened me up to the reality of the situation there.”
Every day, he and other friars would pass through the border checkpoint. Guards waved them through a pro forma process when they left Elfrida, Arizona.
Going the other way, from Agua Prieta, Mexico, to Arizona at the end of the day, was far more cumbersome, a small indication of the barriers faced by migrants.
Wearing the trademark habit helped ease the crossings at the border. Wearing it has also meant other changes in his life.
“It is a shift,” he said. “You start to see yourself in a different way. When you put it on, you become a public figure. People are going to see you in a different way.”
He gradually grew to appreciate a life devoted to service, prayer and community.
He decided he could combine his art and his religious vocation and is now completing six years as a friar in simple vows. Studying art at Columbia College in Chicago, he lives at the St. Joseph Friary in the Hyde Park section.
Wherever he goes as a friar, Brother Kevin is sure to be accompanied by his artistic vision, which he described on a website featuring his work.
“The process of creating art has given me an expressive space I haven’t found in words. Art brings me peace and offers me a meditative state,” he wrote. He added, “The primary focus of my paintings is the sacredness of each person and the everyday experience. My paintings are rooted in the tradition of sacred iconography, a practice used by the church for centuries to depict sacred people. The people I depict are ones that I’ve encountered on mission. I want people to see themselves and others as sacred in their own unique and beautiful way.”
Brother Kevin’s simple vows are renewed each year. He wants to remain a brother, as he doesn’t feel called to the sacramental ministry of priesthood.
Being a brother is not a simple statement of not wanting to be a priest. “It opens up more possibilities, to show people that they are loved for who they are,” he said.
For now, Brother Kevin is open to possibilities. He would like to continue as an artist, perhaps teaching in a Franciscan school. He would like an opportunity to teach art to people, as a means of therapy to assist those who struggle.
“I am very happy as a brother. It has allowed me to do many different things, including serving migrants at the U.S.–Mexico border. It allows me to keep myself and my heart open to the needs of others. My journey has taught me that staying open will bring me exactly what I need, even if it wasn’t what I thought it would be,” he said.
