Lent, 1999, I took my first icon class with Massachusetts iconographer, Rebecca Taylor. We met each Friday, 9-4, in her dining room in Newburyport, MA. I took the class with my now-husband, Gene, as part of my Christmas present to him.
After the first class, I was hooked, and I've been writing icons ever since.
"Writing" icons, because icons are, essentially, a Word... incarnate in their own way, and meant to tell a story.
Rebecca (and her students) use artist-grade acrylic guache, 23K gold leaf, and much prayer, in writing icons.
Traditionallhy, icons are literally traced from previous icons because the tradition is that the original icon was done "from life," and also so that the iconographer's ego does not become too attached).
Everything in an icon is symbolic as a way of telling its story. The symbolism of Jesus' garments is that red represents his divinity, draped in blue, which symbolizes his humanity. The open Gospel book, symbolizing the revealed Good News, is the one place where an iconographer gets to express a personal choice. What is written in the book can be anything Jesus said in any of the four Gospels.
1 comment:
Stunning icons! living, alive in the present moment. I'm a solitary and we have an interdenominational list of about 415 members for monastic subjects, spirituality, contemplation, hesychasm, vocations, info, news , traditional and newer monastic ventures, such as domestic monastics, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/monasterion
monk
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