Icons of the Church Year
A Collaboration in Sacred Imagery
My wife Miriam and I have been creating visual icons for different seasons of the church,
highlighting different spiritual themes in a combination of traditional faith symbols,
canticles from the Book of Common Prayer, and contemporary themes.
Before the pandemic began, we had created icons for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, and Lent.
We hope to return to this project soon to continue the work.
Advent
Light entering the darkness; liberation from oppression.
The Advent is about anticipating salvation in the midst of bondage.
We drew on three sources for our first icon:
The Magnificat, Mary’s Song, in a free reading.
The traditional symbol of the candle.
The raised fist, which has been used to represent struggles against authoritarianism and oppression from the right and the left political spheres throughout the 20th century.
My wife hand-lettered the Magnificat on the background of the icon as well as on some hand-made paper. I drew out the design, painted it in acrylics, and added the gold foil illumination. We mounted it in our parish narthex for the season. We’re working on a new version in 2021.
Original version
Hand-lettered Magnificat
Mounted in narthex
2021 Revision draft
Christmas
Surprising Joy.
Christmas is about hope from unexpected places.
We drew on the following inspirations for this piece:
A traditional style of an orthodox icon of the Madonna and Child.
The lineage of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel, featuring five special unexpected heroines: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary.
An abandonment of the traditional white-washing approach.
Unfortunately we did not complete the icon for the 2019 season,
and will have to return to this another year.
Epiphany
Enlightenment and wisdom.
The Epiphany is about recognizing truth and deepening into wisdom.
The Song of Simeon, Canticle 17 (Luke 2:29-32).
A heart grounded in good soil…
…with a lily growing out and waving in the water, a traditional symbol of wisdom.
My wife hand-lettered the Canticle on the background of the icon as well as on some hand-made paper. I drew out the design, painted it in acrylics, and added the gold foil illumination. We mounted it in our parish narthex for the season.
Lent
Reflection, repentance, recognition.
Lent is a time of interior reflection on the human experience.
We drew on the following in this icon:
The words from our Ash Wednesday liturgy.
The tradition of Memento Mori.
Joni Mitchell’s lyrics “We are stardust.”
I wiped around acrylic paints to suggest a cosmic nebula and spattered dots of white for stars. My wife hand-lettered the words on top with a gold marker. We mounted it in our parish narthex for the season.
