Sacred Icons

A 2000 year old Tradition

The icon is an organic and dynamic piece of creation that moves through time to speak to us. The key is to maintain its universality so that it may reach across generations. The creation of each icon is a spiritual journey steeped in tradition and culture.

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  Artist's Statement

  "Combining the physical painting and a life of prayer enables us to explore and enter into our relationship with God and His creation." Brush strokes come alive in an icon, while the image and process enables icon painters to share what the mind sees, what is trans-formative, unique and unquestionably true.

  The discipline of iconography allows one to make contact with something deeper than what you're painting. The faces reflect the somber, the challenged and the martyred. The color and texture is visual delight. Mary Jane Miller is always wondering, "What, besides spiritual awe, are icons trying to tell us about the highest and best experiences of our human condition?"

  I have a mind full of classic and contemporary icon images, it represents a cacophony of fragments brought together and ultimately expressed in colored dirt. So very simple. You might add or change one layer of color and it is like adding the final stroke to Gods creation. Words and ideas become like paintings for me, I get to see what i think.

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  Books Available

  Books are Available through Amazon or Lulu.com. CLICK the IMAGE Icon Painting Revealed is a concise step-by-step introduction to egg tempera painting. Mary Jane Miller discusses her technique as well as, the history and meaning of icon painting and iconography. Her more detailed book Icon Painting Techniques is an indispensable tool to enjoy the Art of Icon Painting at home or in the professional studio of any iconographer. Book on Lulu.
  

  In Light of Women is her latest contribution to traditional iconography, 72 pages displays one of her icon painting collections and commentary. An exploration of women in iconography and the absence of their voices in the church and icon image. Exquisitely painted icons are juxtaposed with text describing the images, their history, religious context and reflections about the world we live in today. This book is a must for any library, for those collectors of icons and those in authority who preserve this great tradition.

  
  

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Gallery

Icons attempt to portray and bear witness to two realities, the divine and the human, united in an undivided manner. The intent here is not to communicate human ideas about humans or spiritual concepts about the truth but rather to ask the question, "Whose are we?"