The Apocalypse Art Prize

“The first rule of art is beauty.” So begins “A Primer of Pictorial Devices in Medieval Painting” written by artist Gloria Thomas. The primer is a guide to competitors in the Apocalypse Art Prize. The prize is $10,000 and the deadline for entry is December 31, 2013. Complete information about the prize and how to…

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Learning Icon Carving with Hexaemeron

Icon carving is an art which has been experiencing a great renewal in Orthodoxy all across the world.  In the last 15 years we have seen several amazing icon carvers appear, with Aidan Hart in England, the Azbuhanov couple in Russia.  The art of miniature carving has also been  finding  a quality it had lost…

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The Saint John of Damascus Society needs your help

The Saint John of Damascus Society has announced a new collaborative effort that we’re really excited about, and we need your support and participation! The background: Hal Sabbagh, the president of our executive board, was inspired by the apparent discovery last summer of the Higgs boson to develop with me and the rest of the…

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Icons from Shells

Here is a surprising video from a Georgian news website of an Archpriest who uses seashells to create decorative images but also icons.  His images are quite “folk” in appearance and composition and the iconography is obviously rather simple as the shells prevent too much detail.   This priest seems quite comfortable as he is shown…

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Church Design Competition in Russia

Editor’s Note:  A competition in Russia was launched to design a church, the first dedicated to the New Martyrs of Russia.  The result and the winning design, seen below, is quite glorious and truly stands out among the others.  Here is a part of the article from the Pravoslavie.ru website. ИП Смирнов Дмитрий Михайлович. Победитель конкурса…

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Carving New Materials

A few months ago I posted a piece introducing our readers to Branislav Derkovic, a Serbian carver of exceptional quality.  Branislav had asked me to send him some of the stone I use to carve icons, commonly called steatite.  This stone was traditionally used in Constantinople for carving small miniatures but also portable icons.  In exchange for the stone,…

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The Gorbik Master Class — An Auditor’s Reflection

The following article was written by my wife, Maria Sheehan. There was great anticipation in the choir from St. Tikhon’s as the day for Maestro Gorbik’s arrival approached. The seminarians were already carrying their normal course load, many caring for their families in addition to maintaining their duties as clergy or altar servers. Yet in…

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Master Class Concert Receives Rave Reviews

A few weeks ago, Benedict Sheehan posted about his trip to Moscow and the planned collaborations with Vladimir Gorbik, which included a Master Class of liturgical music culminating into a concert which took place on March 3rd.  Here is the article from the Saint-Tikhon website describing the event. source: http://stots.edu/news_130305_1.html Hundreds of faithful from PA,…

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Daniel Neculae: Between Panselinos and Rublev

  Daniel Neculae is a Romanian iconographer living in Luxembourg.  He has a BA in Byzantine iconography from Bucharest University.  He is going to show some of his icons in London, at the Sacred Space Gallery  from March 11 to April 04 and so it seemed like a good opportunity to feature his icons here. Upon looking…

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