June 2026: Journeying in Iconography and Life
Dear friends,
Life is a journey, but everyone journeys differently. Some say the purpose of the journey is to accomplish a mission—but what if the purpose of that mission lies in the journey itself? What if we are invited not to become someone or something we are not yet, but to embrace the very process of thoughtful transition, moment by moment, as the central purpose of life?
The Old Testament often measures human life as righteous when a person fulfills certain goals. Yet the words of Jesus in the New Testament shift the focus entirely. Rather than defining what we should achieve, He speaks about what we should do—what principles should guide us in every choice we make.
I've been thinking about this in the context of iconography, especially after realizing how crucial the visual dimension of our work is at every stage—not only in the final result. On the one hand, we are dealing with one of the most traditional art forms that exists. When working on a new icon of Christ or the Theotokos, the first thing we do is turn to our models. On the other hand, there is always the question: how exactly should we do our own part, in our own particular circumstances?
All professional iconographers say that sooner or later they face the same turning point. When you are learning, your teacher tells you precisely what to do. But once you have learned all the letters, the time comes to ask yourself directly: am I creating this image in the way I was taught because I genuinely believe there is no better way to communicate what I want to express? Or do I feel that, in order to communicate it fully, I need tools different from those I was taught—and therefore have had to find them myself?
It is a difficult question, and one with two edges. On one side stand our clients, with their expectations. Not always, but very often, they ask us to follow the models as faithfully as possible. By commissioning an icon or another sacred image and agreeing to pay for it, they feel—according to the logic of a market-driven society—that they have the right to receive exactly what they paid for.
But what if we are both looking at it the wrong way? What if both client and iconographer are mistaken, and what the client truly seeks is not a material replica of a model, but the impact that the model carries?
Consider what artists of the past produced when they were "copying.
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Artists create images, but the deeper reason they begin is the activity itself—the process, which is an investigation: a sequence of discoveries, failures, and unexpected insights. The final artwork, however beautiful, is ultimately a by-product, a testimony to everything that came before it.
What makes a true work of art essential is the way it reflects the journey the artist undertook to discover something that had never existed before. Our eyes capture the pulse, the presence, and the state of being of someone who worked on an image five days, or five thousand years ago. A single authentic brushstroke draws us in, leading us to the next, and then the next. It becomes a shared journey—and that is what makes true art what it is, not the result.
JOURNEYING IN LIFE
Life journeys, too, are never predictable. You graduate from school dreaming about one thing, but reality constantly confronts you with circumstances you never expected.
In March 2022, we drove 2,000 miles from Saint Petersburg to Georgia, considering it a short getaway—for a couple of weeks, perhaps a few months at most. At that time, everyone we knew back home was convinced that everything would be over soon; surely the people making decisions would realize they had done something terrible and reverse course. People could not seriously be thinking about killing their neighbors in the twenty-first century...But they were. And they still are.
Over those weeks, then months, and eventually years, we found ourselves facing choices that most generations before us had known all too well. Should you allow yourself to dream about returning home, or not? Should you spend time and money trying to convince a local bureaucracy that you deserve a residence permit, or not? Should you stay where you are, or move to another country? And if you decide to move, where should you go—and when?
You adjust to new ways of life, a new culture, a new context and climate, new rules and distances, a new currency, and thousands of other variables that shape everyday existence. Or you choose not to.
And every time you make a decision, you still feel uncertain, as though it were the first time. You have no experience to tell you whether it is the right choice or not, so you learn to live in the present moment. You learn to reassure yourself that if you are alive, have work, a roof over your head, food on the table, and enough money for the next month, then, for now, everything is mostly all right, and there is no reason to worry too much.
Yet worrying is perhaps the hardest part for those who have been forced to leave their homes. I think it has a great deal to do with identity. We are all taught to plan for the future, but when you discover that you cannot truly rely on anything or anyone, when your tomorrow depends on countless decisions made by people who are complete strangers to you, it becomes an entirely new experience of life.In many ways, forced migration is devastating. For us, however, the only way to remain sane during these difficult years was to immerse ourselves completely in our work, giving it all the energy and time we could, leaving as little room as possible for anxiety.
And now we can testify to something unexpected: what may be harmful for one's sense of well-being can sometimes have a positive effect on art and creativity. Moving to a new and temporary place gives us the opportunity to transform our routines into something entirely different. The same is true of creative work. By stepping away from our familiar workspace, we gain the chance to see—and create—everything anew.
When you are removed from all the structures that once kept you "on rails," new circumstances naturally invite you to reconsider both your past experience and your methods of work. Especially if, in that new place, you happen to meet an experienced artist—or two—who are willing to criticize what you do.
In previous newsletters, I have already mentioned Dato Sulakauri and Alexander Kornoukhov. Over the past months, I have finally managed to turn into an online course much of what I learned from them. And, as you have probably noticed, I am incapable of keeping new knowledge to myself. It starts burning a hole in my brain if I do not share it with others.
So here I am, finally announcing a new course. It is completely new material, dedicated to the artistic side of iconography, entitled…
ARTISTIC MEANS IN ICONOGRAPHY
This online course grew out of a profound reconsideration of my own artistic practice, inspired by the guidance of the artists mentioned above. What I learned through that process transformed the way I understand both iconography and art itself, and I believe that for many people it may prove just as eye-opening as it was for me.Have you ever noticed that some people seem to see much more than others? They notice beauty, harmony, and meaning where everyone else merely looks. These people possess a particular set of visual skills—and according to some studies, only 15–20% of the population develop them naturally.
The answer is no.
Life itself proves that these skills can be learned, and I am living proof of that. For many years I drew and painted with only one goal in mind: to achieve good results. It was only in 2024 that something began to change. Gradually, I started seeing what visually gifted people around me had always seen.
This course explores exactly that transformation.
It reveals aspects of iconography that many of us overlook: how artists work with visual language, and how generations of iconographers communicated theological ideas through purely visual means.
The assignments in this course were originally designed for iconographers, but I believe they will be valuable for anyone who wants to learn to see both their work and the world around them through an artist's eyes.
The course Artistic Means in Iconography, begins on September 12.
It consists of five weekly Zoom lectures held on Saturdays at approximately 19:00 Central European Time (1:00 PM Eastern Time in the United States). If at least four participants register from the Southern Hemisphere—Australia, New Zealand, or Singapore, for example—I will be happy to organize an additional live Zoom session at a more convenient time for that region.
And, of course, if you cannot attend the live sessions, recordings will be available, and you will be able to watch them at your own pace long after the course has ended. Here is the course page, - have a look if you are interested: https://iconography.online/artistic-means-in-iconography.html
And please do not hesitate to ask questions, share comments, thoughts and doubts regarding the learning process. I genuinely welcome them, as they will help me improve both the course and the way I teach it.
STUDY GROUP
This year we ran Online Iconography Study Group "Icon of Christ. From Sketch to Icon" for the second time. It is a noble pleasure to see how students move forward, step by step gathering necessary skills to paint an icon, and at the end everybody paints something unique and special. This long-term program is designed to consolidate your knowledge and skills by guiding you through the process of painting an icon of Christ (Head and Shoulders). It is open to all students who have completed the “Frontal Faces“ and “Egg Tempera. Faces“.It is a long and complex program, and we wanted to postpone it till the next year, but as recently we had several requests, we decided to try announcing it for this year as well. The Iconography Study Group program is scheduled to begin in November 2026. We'll confirm the course as soon as 10 people have joined. If by the end of October 2026 we haven't reached the minimum number of participants, we will notify everyone who has registered and immediately issue a full refund.
All other courses proceed as scheduled, - first we work on Garments for Half Figure icons and then we start the most fundamental course, dedicated to Symmetrical Faces.
WORKSHOPS PHOTOS + LIFE CHANGES
Three weeks ago we returned from The New Skete, and I have finally sorted out all my photos from the courses we taught there.These two workshops were the last ones we prepared while still being in Georgia. Soon after that Philip finally received an Italian visa and now we start a gradual transition process. It will take several months, as we are still in process of obtaining a visa for Olga, which should be a rather technical process as this type of visa is called “Visa for a Direct Family Member”. Parallelly we will also need to find a place where we can work and live, transfer our staff, set up a studio workspace and manage other little things… We hope all this will be happening in November, and for this reason we postponed all our in-person workshops until further notice. It was a tough decision, however now we feel even more committed to start planning our brand new in-person English-spoken workshops in Italy as soon as we settle. So far we just managed to register Philip as Partita Iva (in Italy it is how all Individual Entrepreneurs are registered), and launch a Paypal account to accept payments.
Bureaucracy looks like a totally unique class of people. Here is a case: on one hand there is a European Union document Directive 2014/92/EU, Article 16(2), which is reinforced by an Italian law Testo Unico Bancario (D.Lgs. 385/1993), art. 126-noviesdecies, comma 2 и 3. They both rule that those who officially submitted the residence permit application have a right to open a basic bank account. In practice all banks (even the state Posta Banca) require you to bring an actual residence permit as a document, and they don’t care if you have to wait for at least 6 months to get it.
For reasons like this our transfer is slow, as we want to prepare everything well and continue our work seamlessly full time, and we hope we will manage.
Now one more time I want to thank all those who supported us, especially those who agreed to write us supporting letters. Now this process is over and we are slowly opening a new page. We will keep you posted about where we are on this journey, now we are just enjoying summer in Tbilisi, planning details of the move.
FILM: RECEPTION & POSSIBLE POSITIVE IMPACT
In the second week of June we squeezed a short visit to Svaneti to screen our film to those whom we recorded.
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Once there, we also used this opportunity to visit some of the churches, even those which we saw earlier for the second and third time. It is always such a strange impression to discover one more time, how much more visually rich was the reality of artists who produced icons and frescoes in Svaneti churches in 10, 11, 12 or 14 centuries. It is clear that in their work they conveyed far more than we are capable of perceiving today. Not only are their images always expressive and appealing. If we start actively analyzing them in the context of architecture, we will be surprised how meaningful are their visual rhythms and how deep is the theological significance, delivered on several levels. We plan to share our discoveries later, now I want to speak more about the film reception and possible further steps.
After returning home we had a series of meetings with Georgian restorers and art historians, discussing what can be done to save frescoes and churches from further deterioration. The situation is difficult, as some years ago the Georgian government decided to introduce a new law - “the Law of Georgia on Transparency of Foreign Influence, which Georgians called “Foreign Agents Law”. According to this law, any entity receiving more than 20% of its total annual funding from foreign sources must register in a special public registry and report all their financial and practical activity in detail. Besides, as I think I mentioned it somewhere, any activity related to churches or other cultural heritage objects is not only under the strictest control of the Georgian Ministry of Culture, - it also is the only institution entitled to perform any financial activity, related to historical monuments. This means that there can be no fund, or other institution which could collect money from abroad and use them for restoration projects.Yet, reaching this point of desperacy, when we all have lost any kind of hope, we heard one Georgian restorer speaking about alternative possibilities.
She mentioned Lidar Scanning, which now is an industry standard, as before any conservation, restoration, or adaptation work begins on a historic structure, a complete record of its existing condition is essential — and in many jurisdictions this documentation is a legal requirement for listed buildings and scheduled monuments. LiDAR produces this record at a level of completeness that no other practical method can match. So, she mentioned that even keeping in mind possible future restoration of churches of Svaneti, the first step should be to perform this LIDAR Scanning, and the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia, operating under the Ministry of Culture, not being able to perform it with its limited means, will most likely be happy to accept this kind of help from outside of the country, and this is something we all might help with. In the nearest time we are trying to gather all possible information about the mechanisms, which could provide a transparent, reliable and efficient way to perform this activity, and if we see this model is going to work, there will be an official plan and announcement about this on all levels.
Now when I see these things are happening, I am very glad that we filmed our movie, - now there is a hope that it will bring its fruit and help to preserve Georgian Cultural Heritage.
MODERN WOOD AND STONE CARVER
Georgia is rich not only in ancient monuments, but in living, creative people. We met one of them a long time ago, but only recently had the opportunity to see his work in person. It is a great honor for us to introduce you to Georgian woodcarver Dimitri Raznadze whom we consider the finest contemporary carver and the finest creator of relief imagery for the church.
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Dmitry lives in Tbilisi and if you would like to commission something from him, or simply wish to share your impressions, please write in English. His email is dimitri.razmadze27@gmail.com.
NEW IMAGES
And at the end traditionally we share our latest images. Olga managed to have some very fruitful weeks, she painted several images on mulburry paper, which I have just added to the following album: |
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Warmly,
Philip & Olga
P.S. If you missed our Easter Newsletter, it is here.
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