4/4/2023 0 Comments Iconographer at workThe world is in need of light, and the icon a torch burning in the darkness. I truly believe that we need iconography today more than ever. God willing, I will continue to paint icons and teach others to paint icons as well. May the Lord continue to bring to completion the good work He began in me. He knew that in my soul there was an iconographer who was buried under layers of ambition and pride. I have seen countless students become devoted to the icon after a single workshop. I have seen it touch not only my own life, but the lives of others as well. ![]() While I still create contemporary works of sacred art, iconography is increasingly becoming my focal concern. Currently I am preparing to publish several works on iconography, and I am happy. Further confirmation that God called me to be an iconographer. ![]() I am an iconographer! It seems no matter how hard I tried to run the other way, over and over God called me back to iconography I have even received a grant from the NJ Council on the Arts to continue the study of iconography. Iconology is a method of interpretation in cultural history and the history of the visual arts used by Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky and their followers that uncovers the cultural, social, and historical background of themes and subjects in the visual arts. Typical of how God works however, here I am, several years later exactly where I told God I did not want to be. I remember at one point emerging from my studio and shouting, “Lord make me a great artist, but NOT an iconographer!” I literally shouted this prayer in the hallway right outside my art studio and I meant it. In fact, the longer I apprenticed with this Greek iconographer, the less and less interested I became in iconography. ![]() I was more interested in the contemporary sacred arts I had created a series of small abstract paintings called the Hexameron, and was in the process of studying figurative drawing and painting, preparing to create Bible illustrations. While I had some interest in iconography, at that time, I didn’t want to actually become one. Several years ago as I was finishing up my Bachelors degree in art, I was apprenticing with an iconographer from Greece. Or, ‘Be careful what you tell God NOT to do.’
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