I first met Sue Valentine during an extraordinary Icon workshop I taught in March, 2020, at Mt. Calvary Monastery in Santa Barbara California. It was extraordinary for several reasons- first, we all were just beginning to understand that Covid was seriously dangerous, but our worlds hadn’t changed yet to quarantine measures. Extraordinary too, because sadly, Mt. Calvary monastery is now closed forever. And then there were the students- such an interesting and dedicated group, of which Sue was one. Recently I have seen how profoundly moving her icons are and they are developing in such a wonderful way that I invited her to share about her experiences with Icon writing and here is her article:
The Suffering Servant
While new to iconography, I have appreciated from the very first icon I wrote just one year ago how God is using icons to speak to me.
I have been considering God’s call to be a servant, and learned I both significantly misunderstood how highly the Lord thinks of His servants, and also how profoundly they suffer. These days I ponder these things as I paint.
I find I am becoming used to the conventions in icons: a blue outer robe representing Christ’s divinity and a red inner robe representing Christ’s humanity. Then the Lord pointed out there is no blue robe in this icon, because as Philippians 2:5-8 tells us, Jesus voluntarily removed His blue robe when He came to earth to become one of us, to serve us, to suffer for us, and to save us. Then, in Matthew 27:28, after Jesus was arrested and convicted, the soldiers stripped Him of His humanity, removing His red robe, and mocked Him, pretending to worship Him as a king, all the while spitting on Him and beating Him.
Jesus’ servant life and suffering stripped Him of both robes.
With the icon now complete, as I gaze on it, I’m feeling the robe I have painted on Jesus is somewhat jarring. I’ve introduced alizarin crimson, a new color for me. I can’t even remember why I chose that color. Only later do I realize that when the soldiers stripped Jesus of His red robe, they put on Him a scarlet robe which is what I have painted. This icon is the picture of Jesus, not robed in humanity, but covered with the soldier’s scorn for His kingship as they dressed Him in a scarlet robe. With that realization, I see more fully what He suffered and the servant life I am invited into.
Jesus is no longer robed in scarlet, in red or even in blue, all of which I can attempt to paint as I am learning this new way to pray. What I cannot capture or even attempt is what I know is true of Jesus now and read in scripture: Jesus is finally robed not in finite colors, but in the splendor and majesty He deserves.
John the Theologian
This is John the Theologian. John is my favorite gospel, and this is the icon of the gospel writer John who had incredible revelations of the Lord later in life, and he wrote them down.
He has an ink well at the ready, and an angel whispering inspiration in his ear.
The verse written in the book is John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
I have been wrestling with the Lord about how to live out my calling as a teacher. The Lord has told me until those opportunities open up, I should write. But writing seems less appealing to me.
So when asking the Lord, “Why this icon of John?”, He reminded me that this type of painting is called icon writing. If this is the kind of writing the Lord wants me to do, then I’m very interested.
The Lamentation
This is my first larger icon, 16 x 20”. I chose it because my daughter was struggling severely, and I felt I needed to sit with many faces of grief, from the demonstrative Mary Magdalene with her arms raised to the strangely peaceful woman in green, as they mourned over the body of Jesus and as I mourned.
Just the process of painting a larger icon forced me to sit with those feelings of grief longer.
The Disorientation
This is another 16×20” icon, and a sequel to “The Lamentation.” Jesus is now risen from the dead, leaving only His graveclothes behind, so I am surprised this icon is never called “The Resurrection.” Of the many renderings of this icon, I chose this one because Jesus was still visibly present, even though only one of the women noticed He was there. Their focus was on the grave clothes, and so, largely, was mine. I was feeling a kind of desolation, but at least Jesus was with me.
I found this icon very difficult to do and the larger format made that more plain to me. There were long periods when I could not work on it at all. I didn’t even know what I was feeling, and I sought the Lord for insight. Finally, the Lord gave me a word for it: disorientation, which is how I titled this icon. That word helped me unpack what I was feeling. Things were moving very quickly in my life, I was under intense stress, deeply sad, and in shock. I was just hoping that as I painted, the Lord would keep speaking.
The turning point in completing this icon came when the Lord told me that the graveclothes were my false self. Like Jesus, I needed resurrection. I needed to arise from those graveclothes and leave them behind.
As soon as He spoke that to me, the work accelerated and was completed quickly and set in motion the courage to make other changes in my life as I embraced what gave me life.
Sue Valentine is from Chicago. She has a B.A. in Behavioral Science and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, has a certification in Spiritual Direction from North Park Theological Seminary, and is a licensed minister in the Vineyard Church. She is a worship leader, teacher, contemplative, practicing spiritual director and aspiring iconographer.
That’s all for this month. If you have a suggestion for an article or wish to submit one, please contact me for submission requirements- we are always looking for articles that promote the joy of icon writing!
Blessings,
Christine Hales
American Association of Iconographers 