Iconography
Light from the East: Masterpieces from the Ikonen-Museum Recklinghausen
Icon Museum and Study Center, Clinton, MA October 16, 2026- March 21, 2027 Opening to the public, October 16, 2026, the Icon Museum and Study Center in Clinton, Massachusetts presents rare icons from Novgorod, Moscow, Crete, and Constantinople. For the first time in the United States, highlights from one of Western Europe’s largest museum collections…
Continue reading »Reflections of a Coptic Iconographer
“I rush towards my dry brushes, and like Christ, am nailed to my easel.” Marc Chagall, 1938 As I begin writing this article, an organ player downstairs strikes a melody on the church organ. My studio is situated in the mezzanine of the church, built by Canadian Anglicans in the late 1800’s and presently owned…
Continue reading »Image and Awe
It is and it is not. An image is like its subject but also unlike it. Through its likeness, a sacred image helps us to establish relationship with its subject, while through its unlikeness it suggests the subject’s otherness. This journal of liturgical art, as with my own work as a liturgical artist, is concerned…
Continue reading »The King’s Iconographer on Hierarchy, Beauty, and the Crisis of Modern Art
I had the privilege of interviewing world-renowned iconographer Aidan Hart. We discussed his time as a hermit, his career as an iconographer, his relationship with King Charles, and his artistic influences. I was particularly enlightened hearing about his time as a hermit, which lasted over a decade. He ultimately ascertained that the capacity for silence,…
Continue reading »Windows to the Divine: Orthodox Icons – an Interview with Seraphim O’Keefe
In this captivating interview, iconographer Seraphim O’Keefe shares his remarkable journey from an unchurched teenager in Virginia to a novice monk in the Republic of Georgia and eventually a full-time iconographer in the Orthodox Church. He recounts his spiritual awakening through encounters with sacred art and ancient monastic traditions, surviving a 70-foot fall off a…
Continue reading »Humility
If only we could speak to ourselves from the future! How many valuable insights and skills could we have shared with our past selves! On the other hand, how would we have learned these things if not through the mistakes we make today? Is there a way to learn without mistakes? We have books, videos,…
Continue reading »Making Magnificent Hammer-Crafted Icons; an Interview with Evan Wilson
Gould: You’ve only recently started making icons using chasing and repoussé, yet your first projects are nothing short of magnificent. Can you tell us something about your background, to put this work in context? Wilson: I am a married father of two young sons, living on the outskirts of Austin, Texas. We attend Transfiguration Greek…
Continue reading »The Memory Keepers
This text is not just an article – it’s also a call for a combined effort. We invite you to support our documentary film the on Svaneti frescoes and the dedicated people who maintain them. Help us to preserve Svaneti’s invaluable treasures of Orthodox Christianity for centuries to come. Georgian church art reflects exceptional artistry…
Continue reading »Teaching Iconography in the Twenty-First Century
Sharing our teaching method, I invite fellow iconographers to share their views on teaching, as only by approaching this subject from several sides can we foster a new generation of iconographers who will be better than us. The teaching method my wife Olga Shalamova and I now use took its shape gradually. In Italy in…
Continue reading »What is an Icon – A Response for Philip Davydov
Editor’s Note: This open letter was written in response to Philip Davydov’s call for master iconographers to address some fundamental questions about their art and its relationship to the Church. Dear Philip, thank you for the interesting article. It seems to me that the questions you have presented to us are not that difficult to…
Continue reading »