Minor Arts
An American Kouvouklion: A New Design for the Tomb of Christ
Over the years, I have designed numerous furnishings for American Orthodox churches. Because America has a rich tradition of fine furniture making, I have always felt that liturgical woodwork is one of the areas in which America can offer something distinctive to Orthodox culture. When I was asked to design a kouvouklion (the liturgical “tomb”…
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 »Teaching Traditional Ecclesial Pictorial Embroidery
I would like to introduce you to my new project, Katrusya Studio, which was established to teach people Medieval ecclesial pictorial embroidery. What is pictorial embroidery? The term “pictorial embroidery” refers to any embroidery depicting faces and figures of people. Ecclesial pictorial embroidery encompasses figures of saints, scenes from their lives, and famous historical events.…
Continue reading »Lecture: Exploring Church as the Center of Our Life
This talk was offered as part of the Fall Retreat at Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church in Rolla, Missouri. It explores the theme of community life being expressed through liturgical art – a sort of do-it-yourself guide to building an artistic culture of worship and hospitality in church, village, and home: Annunciation Fall Retreat – October…
Continue reading »Iconostases in Balkan Churches – Part 2: Dečani Monastery
The iconostases of Dečani Monastery are of such overwhelming interest that they warrant their own post in my photojournalism series. Dečani was built in 1327-1331. Among the hundreds of monasteries built by the medieval kingdom of Serbia, it was the tallest and grandest. Today, it is also, miraculously, the best preserved, with an extraordinary collection…
Continue reading »Iconostases in Balkan Churches – Part 1: Serbia
Continuing my photojournalism series highlighting Balkan churches, this post features interesting iconostases I photographed in Serbia and in the Kosovo and Metohija region. These iconostases range from medieval to contemporary, and exhibit a remarkable range of styles. I find it fascinating to view them grouped together, and consider that there are such diverse solutions to…
Continue reading »The Epitaphios of Jesus Christ: The Role of an Artist’s Creativity in Christian Art
Foreword In 2021 I attended a conference on “The Art of Embroidery in the Orthodox Church,” at which a speaker presented a thesis that church art is unchangeable, because it is based on church doctrine and therefore the only choice an iconographer or embroiderer is given is to choose between styles. This idea hit a…
Continue reading »The Design of the Anointing Screen for the Coronation of King Charles III
(Editor’s Note: The Coronation of King Charles III, this Saturday, will include important contributions from Orthodox artists. Alexander Lingas, Founder and Music Director of Cappella Romana, will lead the Byzantine Chant Ensemble in singing Psalm 71. And Iconographer Aidan Hart has designed the beautiful screen for the sacramental anointing, which he describes in the article…
Continue reading »A Professionally-Built Iconostasis for a Mission Church
The iconostasis featured here is the culmination of an idea I have been developing for several years. It is installed at Saint Matthew the Apostle Orthodox Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I would like to tell the story of how it came to be, and discuss the problems it is meant to solve. The iconostasis…
Continue reading »‘Being’, The Art and Life of Father Sophrony
Archimandrite Sophrony, painting Christ at the Last Supper, early 1980s, the Monastery of St John the Baptist, Refectory.[1] Image: ©The Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, Essex. Editorial note: This is the second part of a series on the artistic path and iconographic legacy of Saint Sophrony (Sakharov) as seen through a collection…
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