It’s not just an art; it’s a practice. Icon painters must stay close to their own inner presence; there are specific prayers used to accompany the craft. It requires an attention to breathing, quietness, stillness; a disciplined meditation where the attention converges on an effort to bring the Being of the subject into the present moment. The icon is meant to open a window between the viewer and the sacred, drawing them into an intimate and personal relationship not with the object, but with veneration itself.
―Lee van Laer, “A Consonance of Feeling: Art by Chantal Heinegg–Painting Icons in a Modern World.”
This quote and the icon pictured above are from an article in the Spring 2013 issue of Parabola, a quarterly journal published by the Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition. Parabola describes itself like this:
A parabola is one of the most dynamic forms in nature. It is the curve of a bowl, the path of a ball soaring upward and down to earth again. The founder of this magazine decided it was a good name for a journal devoted to the search for meaning, which often goes outward, then back home again along a different path.
I plan to approach my next writing project with the attention, stillness, and disciplined meditation necessary to create something iconic. My material will be local things: the Saxapahaw General Store, a tin-topped pie basket. and a peculiar pillowcase. For I spent today going outward, and I came back home along a different path. I don’t know that I gained meaning on this journey, but I certainly enjoyed it. And I did gain a really nice pie basket.
(Parabola itself is a sort of icon–a window to the sacred. If you can’t find copies in your local bookstore, try the library.)
Mandala – or possibly a pie – on tin top of pie basket.
My mom paints icons, we are Antiochian Orthodox. Nice blog.
I love this in I can’t say how many ways. Yes, yes and yes. I can’t wait to see what you write. I feel like what you are striving for is what I already love about your writing. It always taps into something deeper, no matter what it’s about, and no matter how much you point to it. So excited!
One of the tricks of icons: paint it 50 times. Also: do not be realistic. Also: use gold that will shine out of shadows, and eyes that will follow you. Icons aren’t really windows. Because they aren’t representational, they are actually the presence of Heaven. It’s Catholic (Western Rome) tradition that features windows that open, beyond which is Heaven. In the Orthodox tradition, saints are sanctified by the belief of believers only, with no canonization process needed other than the devotion of repetitive layers of paint, which is a lot of devotion to be sure! Like making a pie.