Hello Fellow Iconographers:
Yesterday was the lighting of the first candle of Advent. Hope! And today the President is in France and Pope Francis is returning from Africa. So many things to pray about in addition to our more intimate family and friends as well as for our own intentions. You can see why life as an Iconographer is always a full one! Praying and painting, painting and praying.
The Albany Advanced Icon Writing Class will be focusing on drawing in the New Year. Beginning February 8, there will be some new suggested readings as well as exercises and teachings to deepen the understanding of how prayer and drawing of the Icon work together. We will use the Egon Sendler book “The Icon, Image of the Invisible” for 2016, exploring the chapters on inverse perspective and geometric structures with an understanding of how these relate to contemporary Icons.
The three worlds of theology, art making, and science come together in the creation of an Icon to give it it’s transcendent quality. These three spheres of creativity open up the viewer to a new way of seeing things, through faith and contemplation. Understanding the role these elements play in the creation of an Icon is increased through prayer, fasting, and practice.
Many of the Icon students in the Albany class are deeply involved in faith communities and social justice. It is an ecumenical group with Methodist Ministers, Episcopalians, Independent Catholic priests, and regular Holy folk who are able through love and fellowship to discuss a variety of theological and social justice issues in a mutually supportive way.
Some of us are reading Walter Wink’s “The Powers That Be“, Theology for a New Millennium. Wink talks about how Jesus broke the spiral of violence through His death and resurrection and showed us a new way of living through non-violence. “Nonviolence leads not just to a new politics and a new society, however;it also involves the very personal task of forgiving our enemies.” Paraphrasing, Wink states that Jesus’ teachings of non violence and love of enemies will hold a central place in the re-forming of American culture. “Not because they are more true than any others, but because they are crucial in the struggle to overcome domination without creating new forms of domination.”
Back to Egon Sendler’s reminders that the creation of an Icon is threefold- theology, art, and science. How to create an Icon that functions with the power and faith that Icons did in the Byzantine era? Pray for us! God will help us, because our century needs them too!
Here is a link to Natural Pigments – a good source for Iconography supplies of all kinds. This link is actually to a page that George O’Hanlon produces which has excellent technical information on painting practices.
UPCOMING CLASSES: Holy Cross Monastery, May6,7&8 Introduction To Icon Writing
Arts Center of the Capital Region March 3-31, Thursday Evenings 6-9PM
May God bless you and keep you save and in His Love all through the Christmas season!
Christine
American Association of Iconographers 
Christine, what a lovely Advent gift is your email! I am gazing at the beauty of each icon, and will look up the Wink book. I have been changing as I understand more deeply the new science, especially quantum physics, energy etc. and that impact on theology. Ilia Delio and Teilhard deChardin have helped form me for several years. I am intrigued by your comments about Sendler’s threefold “theology, art and science” in the writing of an icon. Be assured of prayer.
Thank you so much Gail – good to hear from you!