A Catholic lofi music side-project.
Early in 2025 the Vatican released an anime mascot for their Jubilee events named "Luce". Styled as a pilgrim Catholic and recognizable by her bright yellow rain jacket and green boots, the figure gained instant reception among young Catholics, but I wasn't quite as enthusiastic about the whole event. While I love organic artistic sub-culture, I felt the commission and release of this figure felt inauthentic and disconnected from the ever-ancient ever-new Catholic faith. However, I could see the merits of using art to reach young Catholics. as long as it is rooted in truth, goodness and beauty. I decided to create my own stylized illustration of the figure, and introduced a companion and fellow traveller into the work - Saint Raphael. The illustration was titled "Saint Raphael Guides Luce Through the Dark Wood". This was my attempt to tie the figure to the pilgrim/traveling storyline, but do it in a way that was connected to to the mystical and transcendent realities of our Faith.
This work was one of my most popular pieces of art ever on social media, but I didn't really have an idea of how to use the work for anything more than fan art. Then a new idea clicked. I've been writing music for about as long as I've been drawing, and it's generally my go-to creative outlet when I need to shift gears from drawing and take a break. I find the two practices lend themselves to periods of re-charging the creative batteries. I decided to use Luce as the face of this music project that I called "LoFi Luce Radio". These songs are produced with a mix of genres, inspired by the types of music I've always loved, electronic lounge, chill out, ambient, even oldies, all with a lofi treatment and often times with Catholic samples from old movies, archives and especially Mother Angelica! Luce has become the figure I use to paint a picture of the vibe of each track for the song covers. You can follow @lofiluceradio on Instagram, or stream the tracks on any of the major music streaming platforms. Spotify also has a playlist titled "The Narrow Path" where you can listen to all of the Lofi Luce Tracks in one place!
