Designing an Image of Everything

The Cosmic Mountain

For many years now I have been studying the traditions of iconology, the sacred visual language which has developed in the Church.  Long before becoming an icon carver, the pattern of my thinking had already been built through meditation on the images of both the Christian East and the medieval West.  Although I am mostly…

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Canon: Time for a Paradigm Shift…Part IV

  How to Conceive a Paradigm Shift? In the end, of course, we cannot naïvely expect that this change of paradigm can be imposed by some “official directive.” As the “chair and apple” example shows, such change happens neither easily nor suddenly. The need for change can be voiced, or even generated by an individual,…

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Canon: Time for a Paradigm Shift…Part III

    On the Need for the New Paradigm   First, the suggested shift in paradigm is not just playing with words, nor is it merely for amusement or for increasing our vocabulary. Neither are we following some fashionable intellectual trend. From the conventional meaning of the term paradigm, I would emphasize its ‘active’ semantic aspects. These suppose…

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Canon: Time for a Paradigm Shift…Part II

    Are There Rules and Where to Find Them?   However, how can we discuss the concept of a list of icon-painting rules if there is the slightest possibility that it might be imaginary? First, let us recall that imaginary entities can define our behavior just as much as physically existing ones. Let us…

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Canon: Time for a Paradigm Shift

Editorial note: This post is the first of a series of four which touch on the topic of “canonicity” in icon painting. The series consists of an expanded version of an article previously published in Serbian and in Russian. * The author, Todor Mitrović, is one of the foremost representatives of the icon painting revival…

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The Icon of a New Saint: Sophrony the Athonite

On the 27th of November 2019, Father Sophrony, founder of the Community of St. John the Baptist in Essex, England; monk, spiritual father, theologian, and iconographer, was numbered among the saints with the name St. Sophrony the Athonite. This was not unexpected as there had been rumors earlier, but still, it changed my life. I…

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Murals for the Burning Bush Chapel and Prothesis at St John of the Ladder in Greenville, South Carolina

Introduction to the Project I have been commissioned to design and paint the wall iconography for the parish church of St. John of the Ladder in Greenville, South Carolina. This beautiful temple is of Andrew Gould’s design. His OAJ article about it appears here. I intend to post updates on the iconography project occasionally. As…

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Creating Culture Today

In this video, I interview Benedict Sheehan and his wife Talia-Maria.  Benedict is well known by OAJ readers as a composer and the music director at St-Tikhon’s Seminary. He has been quite active in the world of Orthodox music and recently celebrated for his composition of a Divine Liturgy.  In the last few months, what…

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