Radiating God's love through art

When Sophie Ritchie sits down to paint, it’s with an iPad in her hand and with God in her heart.

“We all get our talents from God, so using them to praise Him and to spread the Gospel and everything, I feel like that’s a worthy endeavor to do,” she says.

Sophie has had a love for art since she was a child, and from about the age of eight, she has wanted to be an artist.

“It’s the idea of creating something out of nothing, and it makes me think of God and God’s creation,” she says. “You have a blank page, and then it’s almost like magic. It just appears. Something’s there. You’ve turned it into something that somebody might want to hang on a wall.”

Sophie says she didn’t know what becoming an artist would look like exactly or if her dream would ever become a reality, but now she is hoping to make it happen. In November, she opened her own business called Radiate, a name she chose because her middle name is Starr and because of what she hopes to accomplish through her art.

“It’s the idea of radiating God’s love to the world. Art can radiate. People can radiate,” she says.

 Although Sophie is happy to take on lots of different kinds of projects, including commission work, Radiate is primarily focused on religious and inspirational art, something she chose, she says, because she feels the world needs it.

“I really like the idea of spreading positive messages and stuff that reflects back to God,” she says.

Sophie creates a lot of work using biblical quotes and quotes from the saints. She says she loves drawing the saints, especially the Blessed Mother.

“I love drawing Mary. I always like to draw her with curly hair, and it’s probably because I have curly hair,” she says. “I like doing the Holy Family. That’s a fun one. And St. Kateri I like. I don’t know why, but I think maybe it’s because her clothing is so beautiful and her hair and everything.”

Even when Sophie’s work isn’t faith related, for instance when she’s painting portraits or animals, Sophie says God is her inspiration.

“It’s just thinking about how God created all of these things, so that is a big part of it,” she says. “God is in everything and all people and all the creatures.”

Sophie credits her family for both her artistic talent and her faith. She says her maternal grandmother was an art teacher and professional artist, and she has a cousin on her dad’s side who paints murals. She says her family also includes musicians and actors.

Faith has also always been a part of Sophie’s life.

“We were always the last family to leave church, that kind of thing. I was an altar server, and I loved it,” she says.

She cites two turning points in her faith journey. The first happened when she was 16 and her dad, Stephen, who is now a candidate for the permanent diaconate, joined the Catholic Church.

“He was Episcopalian, but he came to church with us, so everybody thought he was already Catholic,” she says. “But, after he became Catholic, the way he talked about the world and seeing the world was obviously different because Catholics live a different sort of life, so that was definitely very impactful on me.”

Not long after that, Sophie left for college, and that’s when she says she took ownership of her faith. She studied art at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, but not finding any faith-related activities there, she says she would often hop on the bus and head to the Newman Center at the nearby University of Massachusetts.

“I spent probably more time at UMass than I did at Hampshire because I was at the Newman Center all the time, so that was really when it was like, ‘OK, this is mine. I love God. I want to be at church. I want to be involved with my faith. I want to do Bible studies, lead Bible studies,’ all of that,” she says. “When my friends from Hampshire asked me, ‘What were you doing all weekend?’ it’s like, ‘Well, I was on a Catholic retreat.’ You just have to own it.”

After graduating and returning to Maine, Sophie took a position as a youth minister at St. John Paul II Parish in Scarborough. Along with working with the students, Sophie says her favorite part of the job was the artwork that she created to accompany lessons and promote activities.

“I did a lot of flyers and the art for bulletin announcements and stuff. Then, if we had a specific curriculum, I would do art for the walls in the teen room and the middle school room,” she says.

Although she enjoyed the position, she says she knew her opportunities to advance in faith formation work would be limited because she didn’t have a degree in theology. That, plus the discovery of the impact that her art could have and watching the TV series The Chosen inspired her to change careers and give her art a try.

“I did get very into The Chosen, and I think that was another part of what inspired me to do religious art. It was like it opened up the Bible for me and the faith for me in a way that I hadn’t thought about before because it made it so real and so normal. I was like, I can draw these characters. I can draw the saints. I can bring Catholicism into art and into everyday life. It doesn’t have to be something that is kind of hidden over in this Catholic corner. I want to share it with other people,” she says.

Through prayer and with the support of her parents and her boyfriend, who is now her husband, she decided to take the leap. She is now a teaching artist at the Portsmouth Music and Arts Center and has a digital storefront for Radiate.

“I was like, ‘Alright. I do feel like this is where God is calling me,’” she says.

Most of Sophie’s art is created on an iPad Pro, using an app called Procreate.

 “It’s the most versatile and it’s the easiest to duplicate and print because I draw and paint directly on the iPad, and then I can just export that,” she says. “It’s definitely a learning curve, but once you figure it out, it’s kind of nice because all the tools are in one place, so you can get the effect of painting, drawing, inking, all of it, in having the Apple pencil and the iPad.”

She does traditional painting and drawing, too, but says that sometimes also poses a challenge.

“I’ll be drawing on a piece of paper or painting, and I will try to zoom in, and I’m like, well, I can’t,” she says, laughing.

 Sophie describes her style as illustrative, drawing inspiration from Disney animation, superheroes, and anime.

“I would say line art, pop art, and cartoonish illustrative,” she says. “You can view the world through a different lens when you paint it or draw it. It can kind of highlight parts of yourself or parts of what you see, and it doesn’t have to be realistic. It can be fun and colorful.”

Sophie says she hopes to convey a sense of warmth through her art. It is why she chose Blessed Chiara “Luce” Badano to be Radiate’s patron saint. Blessed Chiara was 18 years old when she died of cancer in 1990, but throughout her sufferings, she found strength in her relationship with Christ.

“Since the day I learned about her, I admired her joy, faithfulness, and positivity, even in the midst of extreme suffering,” Sophie explains on her website. “Her life embodied the meaning of radiating love, light, and joy. I hope my art can help bring a little more God into the world, just like she did.”

Sophie says she hopes her art reflects the love of God and inspires others to radiate their gifts to the world as well.

“Life is beautiful! Sometimes it’s hard to remember that with all the messages of negativity from the world, our surroundings, and even ourselves. But Jesus tells us to be a light to the nations. I use my art to spread Christ’s light.

Radiate

You can check out more of Sophie’s work, which include prayer cards and customized confirmation portraits, on her website: www.radiate-ssrr.com/.