Detroit — At one time, most Americans would have to go into an Orthodox or Easter Catholic church to see in icon.
Now, icons — or at least photographs of icons — look out at us from the covers of many religious books; posters for religious events often depict icons; and an increasing number of Western Christians have developed an interest in icons — either as the devotional aids they are for Eastern Christians or at least as religious art.
And some people are even learning how to make icons themselves.
When Fr. Marek Visnovsky was a seminarian back in Slovakia in 2000, his bishop provided some space for an iconographer to teach a class to local nuns.
In appreciation, the sisters said there would be room for two seminarians to join them for the class. Fr. Visnovsky was one of those seminarians.
He went on for further study in the making of icons, and has now made close to 200 of them — from 9 inches by 12 inches, to some as large as 8 feet tall.
Now, at 32, Fr. Visnovsky is administrator of St. Emilian (Byzantine) Parish in Brunswick, Ohio, and he is also teaching the art of iconography to others. He’ll be in metro Detroit Aug. 23-27 to teach an introductory-level icon painting class at Sacred Heart (Byzantine) Parish in Livonia.
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The class is limited to just 12 students, and the deadline for registration is Wednesday, Aug. 4. By the end of the course, each student will have made his or her own icon of Christ Pantocrator (Almighty).
But while there is an art to making icons, to the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics an icon is more than just a work of art. They view icons as windows into heaven.
“An icon is a meeting place between the person who prays and God,” Fr. Visnovsky says.
The iconographer — literally “icon-writer” — prays throughout the process of making an icon, and the icon is not just a picture to be viewed and appreciated for its artistic merits, but rather an aid to prayer.
To Western eyes, icons might look a bit unusual, and perhaps that helps explain our interest in them, or so says local iconographer Kathy Crombie, a member of Divine Child Parish in Dearborn.
“I think one of the reasons (Western Christians) have become interested in icons is that they don’t know what they are,” Crombie says. “They know they are considered holy, but wonder why that is, and why they look so strange, so different (from Western religious art).”
One of the first things to understand about icons is that they have what is called “reverse perspective.”
As Fr. Visnovsky explains it, Western art uses the concept of perspective to try to represent the three-dimensional reality that we see on the two-dimensional plane of a canvas.
“In Western art, the vanishing point is in the picture, but with an icon the vanishing point is in the viewer,” he says. “That’s because, really, God is the viewer, not us.”
So, the unusual look of Eastern icons is not just a matter of ancient stylistic conventions, but has a theological basis. Besides being aids to prayer, they are also meant to teach.
“St. John Damascene said, if you want to show people your faith, take them to the church and show them the icons,” Fr. Visnovsky says.
Fr. Joseph Marquis, pastor of Sacred Heart (Byzantine) Parish, explains that the reason an iconographer is said to “write” an icon, rather than just paint it, is not only because many icons include certain words or abbreviations, but because the stylized elements of an icon are meant to convey a message. Those who have learned the symbolism employed in the design of icons can truly “read” them.
As Crombie puts it, “Everything in an icon has meaning.”
But one thing a viewer will not read on an icon is the iconographer’s signature. “You don’t sign it, because it’s not your work,” she says. “It’s His.”.
Of course, historically, a similar teaching purpose was served in the Western Church by stained-glass windows and religious statuary. But Eastern Christians have a theological problem with statues of Christ and the saints, Fr. Marquis explains.
“The West always permitted statuary, but to have true-to-life, three-dimensional representations goes against the theology of the East,” he says. “It represents a realized eschatology, whereas icons are two-dimensions — they are evocative and make us long for eternity.”
Fr. Marquis attributes the current fascination with icons in the West to the influence of Pope John Paul II, who raised awareness of the Eastern Catholic Churches such documents as “Orientale Lumen” and “Ut Unum Sint.”
“There’s a lot of cross-pollination in the Church now, thanks to John Paul II,” he says.
Crombie, who has been making icons for several years now, sees it as a calling form God. “I am just amazed at what God has done. He led me to this, called me to this, and I am so amazed at the things He has placed in my path,” she says.
Her latest project is a large icon of the Divine Mercy image commissioned by the Divine Mercy Center. It will be dedicated in a Sept. 15 ceremony at St. Barnabas Church, Eastpointe.
