Posts Tagged ‘Jonathan Pageau’
Most of The Time The Earth Is Flat.
This is post 1 of 4 in the series “Ancient Cosmology Today” Jonathan Pageau uses a phenomenological approach to explain traditional cosmology and its symbolism, explaining in what manner it is crucial to our experience of being in the world. Most of The Time The Earth Is Flat. Where is Heaven? Heaven and Earth in…
Continue reading »Jonah – Resurrecting The Body and Saving The City
The icon of the Holy Prophet Jonah is one of the the most ancient images of Christianity. Like the story of this prophet, his image is a powerful symbol of death and resurrection. I want to look closely at the story of Jonah and its iconography because it brings together almost all the elements I…
Continue reading »Steatite Icons and Material Symbolism
One of the points many OAJ contributors have been trying to bring across is that the medium out of which sacred art is made and the artful human act of fabrication are important on a symbolic and theological level. This question of materiality and production have become crucial ones in our age of mechanical reproduction…
Continue reading »What is missing from Aronofsky’s Noah
In many of my past articles I have explored the symbolism of death and how it is related in the Bible and by our Tradition to the arts and technology, to hybridity and the foreigner, the serpent, to the cave, to Cain, to animality and to periphery in general. Aranofsky’s recent Noah movie deals intently with many…
Continue reading »Adapting a Painted Icon to Carving
One of the exciting aspects of the renewal in icon carving we have seen in the last few decades is how this renewal is in a constant dialogue with painted icons. One of the visible goals, one of my own goals, is a search to infuse into the carved image some of the visual aspects…
Continue reading »A Contemporary Opus Sectile Icon
Last year, I promised our readers that I would try to create an opus sectile icon, that is an icon that joins different stones together to make an image. I recently had the chance to create something that is a mix of carving and mosaic and is probably as close as I am going to…
Continue reading »From Logos to Graph: Lost In Translation
This is post 3 of 3 in the series “To Write or to Paint an Icon” Several contributors go over the common debate on whether one “writes” or “paints” an icon. Is “Write” Wrong?: A Discussion of Iconology Lingo A Symptom of Modern Blindness – Further Thoughts on the Phrase “To Write an Icon” From…
Continue reading »6 Days of Icon Carving
Last month I had the opportunity to give my first icon carving training for Hexaemeron. Hexaemeron is a travelling liturgical arts school based on the work and method of Ksenia Pokrovsky of recent memory. It was an honor to join the Hexaemeron team and to have a chance of working with a very dedicated group of…
Continue reading »The Dog-Headed Icon of St-Christopher (pt.2): Encountering Saint-Christopher
This is post 2 of 2 in the series “The Dog Headed Icon of St-Christopher” Jonathan Pageau traces the pattern of meaning in Dog-headed representations of St-Christopher and how they relate to our experience of the world. Understanding The Dog-Headed Icon of St-Christopher The Dog-Headed Icon of St-Christopher (pt.2): Encountering Saint-Christopher In my last article…
Continue reading »Seat of Wisdom
A few months ago, Aidan Hart wrote a wonderful article on the possibility of statuary acting as icon. He did this in the context of having sculpted a model for a stone version of the Seat of Wisdom. Just as he was posting his article, I was also receiving a commission for a wooden carving…
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