I am falling in love with Icons. I just can't help myself. I didn't used to like them. Sure, they had artistic interest, but there is something about them that, of late, has been drawing me inward, giving me some kind of depth of understanding that I cannot possibly explain. I think only another lover of Icons could understand what I mean by this.
I found the one above via Crescat.
I've also fallen in love with the Icon of Our Lady of Perpeutal Help. I'm not sure this one is the original, as there are several versions of it, but I recently read about the meaning and it so captured my heart that I had to find a copy. I did find one of the "descendants" of the original icon, a little cheap version on a piece of wood, but eventually I would like to find a good copy of the original. All are beautiful. All seem to draw me into a far deeper understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation, of Mary's fiat, and of her Motherhood to us all.
Our Lady of Perpeutal Help, pray for us!
8 comments:
I love icons too, Adoro!
If you are ever in downtown Minneapolis in St Olaf's, stop in at their chapel where there is a maybe 6 foot square icon of Our Mother of Compassion. Gorgeous.
Especially important for me is that the artist is my Seventh Grade teacher at St Anthony's school in Duluth, Sister Mary Charles McGough, O.S.B., now at the St Scholastica Monastery up there.
I'm pretty much "illiterate" when it comes to creating art, but we had a Christmas project that year where we all made "stained glass windows out of brown butcher paper, soaked in linseed oil to make it translucent. The drawing and colors went down first.
Our home had a "piano window" (high on one outside wall) in the "front room", just perfect for the project. I kind of did it OK, by my drawing of a Nativity scene was pretty pathetic. I remember the last day before Christmas break, Sister Mary Charles checking over all our projects. When she got to mine, she looked at it for a minute or so, then grabbed a marker of some kind, this was 1954, so it wasn't the kind you are thinking of, and with a few skilled strokes, she transformed my pathetic attempt at art into something really nice. It was a treasured Christmas memento in our home (until my Dad, in an unusual fit of organizing, threw it away).
But I still have very fond memories of my one attempt at real craftsmanship/art, even though it was edited.
My Mom's sister was also a nun in that same Benedictine Order in Duluth.
Sister Mary Charles is still going strong and is nationally recognized in the U.S. as an icon "writer." That's the term they use.
I love that term, "writing icons". They don't just paint them...they WRITE them, because each stroke, each element, each color, has specific meaning, and together they all form an essay. It is God's writing, and it takes us out of our own world and lifts us up to God.
Someone send Terry Nelson over here to give us his take! LOL
Beautiful icons, Adoro. The new art in your sidebar really makes your blog "pop"!
Thanks, Cathy.
Now, if I could just figure out how to add a picture to the top for my header. I was thinking "Disputation of the Eucharist", but I don't know how to add it.
Can anyone help?
Adoro: I know I had trouble getting my image up and exactly how I wanted it. Eventually, I bumbled through it. I know if involved going into the .html in my template and editing stuff in the header.
I just went back into my template but I don't think I have any text I can just send where it will be clear what I did. I look at now and go: huh?
Adoro:
Dan Lacey of Faithmouse generously created my header. You might want to look at the HTML source code of Stella Borealis and copy the Neverborn image code that Dan created and work with a "dummy" blog, to see if you can make your image work.
CTR-U will show you the source code.
Ray,
I considered doing something like that, but html is so far beyond my understanding that it's too complicated at this point.
So I'll leave it as is for now, I guess. I don't actually have an image picked out, anyway, not yet. Maybe eventually.
I've been having fun playing with my sidebar, though! :-)
I have been studying icons for some time now. If you ever have a question about one, just drop me a line. I am taking a class in DC in the next few months. I have writen a few in rough draft, sketch form that I plan on posting on my blog. But I am waiting bc there is some one I want to show them to first before I do since he is responsible for getting me back at the drawing board after a 10 year artistic dry spell.
OLPH is one of my favorites too.
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