Getting Each Step Right

Top Left: Archangel Gabriel (Annunciation); Bottom Left:St.Jean d'Arc; Center: Elousa Mother of God; Top Right: Mary, Mother of God; Bottom Left: St. Mary of Egypt

I've begun work on a tryptich which will eventually end up in the prayer corner of my studio. I did the cartoon back in October 2016, then put it aside as my Dad went into his final illness.  Almost a year later, I'm ready to begin the next stage of the work.  So this past weekend I cut the panels for the center and the wings.  And although the panels are cut, I'm a long way from being ready to begin painting.

Which is alright.

One of the life lessons I've learned from icon painting is the importance of every step of the process.  Historically and to the present day, icons are painted either as wall murals in buon fresco, secco (egg tempera on plaster) or mosaic or as portable panels in egg tempera, acrylic, encaustic, mosaic, cast metal or carved in wood or ivory in bas relief.  In every case, regardless of media, a lot of preparation and preliminary work is required just to get to the start line.

I've learned the hard way, that any rush to get to the "good parts" (the aspect of the work that is gratifyingly self-expressive) in icon painting is a mistake.  Although I try to work efficiently , there are no shortcuts.  Even those stages of the work that are tedious or boring (which I am tempted at times to regard as taking up time that could be given over to more creative activity) , are not a diversion but essential.

Essential not only in a practical, material sense -- a smooth polished gessoed surface on a panel is essential for gilding and painting -- but essential in a spiritual sense as well.  If. as has been my experience, every icon is a prayer made visible, every stage of the work is an offering of one's self and one's work to God.  The loving attention to detail, concentration and hard work to get each aspect of the work as close to perfect as one can manage, if done with the right intention, gives glory to God.

Which true, not only in the studio, but in the mundane but essential tasks of marriage, parenthood, work and prayer.    

 

A Month Away on Retreat (Without Leaving the City Limits)

I'm taking annual leave for four weeks to work in the studio with a student, Julie Perigo, who has come to Juneau for an intensive tutorial on icon painting.  We've already completed almost a week together and she has begun work on the Holy Face ('The Icon of Christ-Made-Without-Hands)

This icon is best starting point to introduce the theology of the icon and the spirituality of the iconographer and a good place to begin painting as well, as the composition is very simple.

She is also getting hands-on experience (no pun intended) in the craft work of making wooden icon panels and preparing the levkas (the gesso ground for the board) as well as water gilding and egg tempera painting.

I'm grateful to have the leave time to devote to working with her and being in the studio.  It is as much a spiritual retreat as work time, as I tend to pray best with a brush (or a piece of sandpaper) in my hand.

Taking Time to Be Ready

 A personal paradox of sorts.  If I'm not drawing or painting (icons, that is), I start having trouble with prayer (nothing spectacular, just the usual difficulties for me, distractions, boredom, inattention, discouragement.  And of course, if I'm going through this or that struggle with prayer, then, you guessed it, it becomes more difficult to paint (distractions, boredome, inattention, discouragement.).  Yet, the answer doesn't seem to be either more prayer or more time in the studio, although that would seem the obvious way to proceed.  But what usually turns things around is not more activity but less (even activity that would seem condusive to prayer and iconpainting such as reading scripture or a spiritual writer.)  

From time to time it helps to find time to simply sit quietly in my prayer corner and try to clear my mind and just be present.  But certain types of activities are helpful and some days (like this morning,) its better to do something that takes a lot of concentration but doesn't require any evaluation and analysis.  Like cleaning up the kitcken and taking out the garbage and recycling (which is what I did this morning -- Monday is garbage day where I live.   Other days I straighten up the studio. (It helps me to have something to do with my hands.). It was only then that I was able to be disposed for prayer and eventually, to start drawing.  

I used to think that I could just step into prayer or painting. But I realize that I need time and space to prepare (which is why, when I'm serving at Mass, I need to be there at least 30 minutes ahead of time).  A part of me wishes that I could simply show up, ready to begin.

I now know better, having discovered that  it takes time for all of me to arrive.  Otherwise I risk being only superficially present.  

For me, its something like getting a gessoed panel (a wooden board covered with a smooth and polished layer of plaster on it) ready for the gold and the painting.   The Master is the one doing praying (and the painting) but I have to show up with the panel (actual and metaphorical) ready for His presence and His hand.