Graphic designer uses his gifts to help vocations
'His witness of faith and family support for the priesthood is a model for many'
Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 5, 2007
Vocations Supplement
Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
David Tisch's artwork reassures those who may feel doubt about their call to the priesthood and encourages others to think about their own vocation. |
Graphic artist David Tisch knows people should contemplate what God wants for their lives. Now, he's using his artistic talents to help other see that, too.
Tisch, of Lake Orion, has used his talent to create a series of artwork that he'd like to see parishes and dioceses use to help others think about what God is calling them to do, helping them ask the question, "What can I do to make myself useful to God?" he said.
"I think people aren't taking the time to consider what God wants to do in their lives," he said.
Tisch is a member of St. Joseph Parish in Lake Orion whose day job is graphic designer for an automotive studio. He wasn't necessarily expecting God to be working in his own life around the summer of 2005, when ideas for vocations-related artwork started coming to him. He remembers he was getting ideas so quickly he could barely get them down on paper fast enough.
"I don't know where they were coming from," he said.
The Archdiocese of Detroit's Vocations department will be using some of his artwork for future campaigns. Jan DeFour, the vocations coordinator, said the department is "truly grateful for his generous heart, creative energy and willingness to offer his hard work for the service of the Church."
 "Dave Tisch is a witness to the Church on how the laity can use their gifts and talents to support and promote vocations," she said. "Not only does his artwork reflect a true understanding of the positive nature of vocations, but his witness of faith and family support for the priesthood is a model for many."
Some of Tisch's artwork elevates the status of the priesthood, to "shed light on the importance that it holds," he explained, and some focuses on the impact the priesthood has on the next life. Another series is meant to reassure men who feel they are being called and to tell them how important the work ahead of them is ("You are His response to our prayers," one poster says).
Another series reminds and encourages people that when they pray, they must also remember to listen back "to what God is calling you to do," he said. For a few, he pulled various messages out of the Our Father by making certain letters red: one example is "follow me."
Other artwork features images of Mother Theresa and Pope John Paul II with highlights of what their lives were like before they answered their call to religious life — to make the observer stop and think about his or her own life. "What if these great people had not taken the time to contemplate what God wanted for their lives?" Tisch said.
Tisch grew up in a strong Catholic family with a father who took the time to teach his children about faith, he said. "He always took time in the evening to pray with us," he said. "Just in teaching us faith, he taught us everything we needed to know."
He got to know his parish priests, and his parents had them over for dinner. He thought of them as a group of remarkable men and spiritual leaders, he said.
Although he knew about vocations and that it was important to pray for them, neither he nor his brother ever felt a call to become a priest — but he remembers that his dad had put a vocations bumper sticker in the family's medicine cabinet about the time he was in junior high school. It was an orange background with a black phone on it, with the text "If God's on the line... don't hang up!"
"At the time, I wasn't sure I knew what the word 'vocation' meant," he said.
 As a husband of eight years, he and his wife, Tracee, have two young children, Adam and Alayna. He's glad he's able to use his talent to encourage discussion about vocations and, hopefully, plant a seed in someone who is considering a priestly or religious vocation.
"It's definitely satisfying doing something God is calling you to do," he said. "I feel, for whatever reason, this was not by accident."
He is working on a Web site to post his art, and welcomes other dioceses, parishes and schools to use his work to make prints or even for bulletins and newsletters. "Since the ideas are already done, I'd like to make them available," he said.
Tisch said he understands the priesthood isn't something you can really talk someone into, but we as a Catholic community can inspire young men and women to answer a call they are receiving and to "make sure they understand how important it is to us, too, that they answer," he said.
We still have to pray for vocations and realize that it will take a lot of prayer, action, encouragement and inspiration all working together. God can call, but people still have to be encouraged and inspired to answer His call, he said.
"We all recognize the shortage of priests is a concern for the future," he said.
Tisch is working on the Web site www.answerthecallofthelord.com; he should have artwork up shortly.
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