The Nativity of Christ by Olga Shalamova. Paper, mixed media, 2025
ITALIANO

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Topics:
1. GREETING
2. A THOUGHT
3. FILM
4. COURSES AND WEBSITE
5. NEW IMAGES

Merry Christmas!

We remember His Birth not just as a commemoration of a greatest event in the history of humanity, but also to remember Him as one of us. To remember that His teaching was fully practical,and that it is we humans who prefer rewriting words instead of putting them into practice.

Yet, again, one more time, this Christmas gives us a chance.

Another date to wake up and begin anew, and I'd like to suggest one particular thought for your consideration (and you can decide whether it's artistic or not).

A THOUGHT

The evangelist portrait of Luke under the inscription Iura sacerdotii Lucas tenet ore iuuenci from Carmen paschale by Coelius Sedulius. Gospels of Saint Augustine, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Ms. 286, fol. 129v. Some days ago, while reviewing my image collection for a model of a saint who was a monk. I scrolled through folders spanning all periods of Christian art. Then one idea struck me like lightning…

We don't just see saints on icons or frescoes as neutral representations of great people—we perceive them through the artist's prism. It is the artist who shapes our vision, or at least most of it.

This seems obvious, yet consider: at school, a dozen teachers guide us. And will we love math or English in adult life or not depends largely on them—on their vision, which we inherit. An inspired teacher who loves their subject will likely inspire students to love it too. But a burned-out teacher, or worse, one who never cared? What chance do I have of loving chemistry if my chemistry teacher wasn't in love with it ever ever?

Similarly, an iconographer depicting Christ or a saint borrows motifs from tradition, yet offers their personal vision and interpretation without his or her will. Tradition supports us, but it's the iconographer's personal testimony that matters most. This concrete icon or fresco is what the beholder encounters in this specific church—and it's the impact it makes that counts.

It's a paradox: liturgical art represents the whole Church, yet each piece is created by one person with their specific training, background, and life circumstances.

I've heard stories of people turned away from Church by a single harsh phrase from an unfriendly church staff member, or elementary school students pushed away from art at the age of 7 by a discouraging teacher. Scrolling through contemporary images of saints I felt the same feeling. In contemporary icons, I mainly saw artists caring about recreating folds and highlights, about performing the operations they were taught; they seemed worried about their professionalism and stylistic connections, but nothing above that. But in early Christian art, I saw people radiating living faith. For those early artists, the content was faith itself—people of faith, presented to infect and inspire others. They didn't worry if their work looked primitive. What mattered was transmitting faith and love, not demonstrating professionalism.

I've heard stories of people turned away from the Church by a single harsh phrase from an unfriendly staff member, or of seven-year-olds pushed away from art forever by a discouraging art teacher, who told them they had no talent as he saw no ability to reproduce what he wanted.
Iconography Study Group result - icon of Christ Pantocrator as an example for Iconography Study Group program.


Scrolling through contemporary icons and frescoes of saints, I felt that same deflating sensation. In modern icons, I mainly saw artists recreating folds and highlights, performing operations they were taught, worried about professionalism and stylistic correctness—but nothing beyond that. And immediately after that I was seeing images of saints produced in the first centuries of Christianity… On these images I saw people radiating a living faith. For those early artists, faith itself was the content—they painted Christ and saints to infect and inspire others, and not just to accomplish what they were asked to. They didn't worry if their work looked primitive. What mattered was transmitting faith and love, not demonstrating technical mastery.

How has iconography become so ritualized? How can we make sure to use our artistic skills to transmit faith and inspire others, instead of being those artists who push people away from Christ?

I am truly looking forward to hearing your thoughts, and in the meantime I will share our routine news.

THE FILM
Dubbing Footage of ou film about Svaneti into English.

The most important news first: Our Svaneti film is almost ready! Since shooting the video in October 2024, we've gone through several versions, countless discussions, and received invaluable help from many people. Just last week, Peter, an American living in Tbilisi, volunteered to record the English dubbing. Now three parallel processes are underway with separate specialists: a professional sound engineer is handling the audio mix, another professional is doing the color grading, and my task in the coming days is to compile a complete credits list honoring everyone who helped make this possible, so a special designer will choose a font, format and put them at the end of the video.

Thank you for your patience with us—we're working hard to deliver the best result we can, and we'll share updates as soon as we have them. Of course, the moment the final cut is ready, we'll invite all those who helped us financially to view it first!

And if you still have a dollar or two to help us cover the film title design, credits, and other lettering work, please consider contributing through the same platform: https://gogetfunding.com/behind-this-door/

COURSES AND WEBSITE

Our website refurbished. Our upcoming courses are proceeding as planned: Egg Tempera Basic starts January 8, our first in-person workshop in Melbourne begins January 10, the first session of Symmetrical Faces launches February 12, and the Study Group program that just started in November is thrilling us with its progress. Our workshops in the New Skete Monastery (NY, USA) are being filled, and last week we began planning our Italy courses for July 2026. We'll share details in the next newsletter once everything is confirmed. If you'd like to receive personal notifications, let us know and we'll email you directly. Beyond course updates, we're excited to announce a major renovation of our website, iconography.online!

The main improvements:
• A redesigned Home page where you can now sort courses by subject: https://iconography.online/#courses
• Additional filtering by level on the courses page: https://iconography.online/....
• Dozens of new photos from Study Group students showing how images slowly but steadily unfold during the creative process: https://iconography.online/about.html#studygroup
On the personal front, we are awaiting word from the Italian Embassy in Armenia. I've heard they're generally kind and don't require excessive documentation, though they take all their time to process the documents, so I should hear from them towards the end of February.

IMAGES
Madonna Nicopea by Philip Davydov. St Francis of Assisi by Philip Davydov.

Only 2 new images this time: an icon of Madonna Nicopea and Saint Francis by Philip Davydov.
Both these icons were painted on old wood with how encaustic. Click the image to see the details.

And at the end of the Newsletter, one more time we are happy to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!!!

Warmly,
Philip & Olga

P.S. If you missed our October Newsletter, it is here.
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