About
I was born in 1965 in Ukraine, and brought up in a non-religious family. I entered college to study mechanical engineering, and eventually earned a Master's degree in the field. I began to paint during my freshman year, and for many years thereafter created "secular" canvases. Throughout this time, one question remained foremost in my mind: What is ultimate beauty? In search for the answer, I turned to iconographic images.
From my experience in painting, I found that contemporary art has no interest in anything beyond itself. Today's artists see their vocation only as self-expression. The most important feature of art today is "uniqueness," a vain pursuit that compels the artist to invent a new style or come up with a new concept instead of learning from nature. In most cases, what makes new styles "unique" is that it opposes the style that preceded it. This makes the progress of art a matter of constant warfare. What's more, in the contemporary world, artwork has become mere merchandise, rendering the artist not a creator, but a salesperson and PR specialist.
By way of contrast, Orthodox iconography is grounded not in the individual artist's ego, but in Tradition, and represents an image of God and His saints. Inside Orthodox churches, you can find icons from different regions and different times, made in different styles - but all are equally venerated. They are venerated not because of the name of the artist, but because of the Subject he depicts. From an artistic point of view, I saw enormous beauty shining forth from those old and damaged boards – colors that would make Matisse jealous, and lines laying out the path to artistic freedom and true wisdom. The well-written icon appears more profound and more worthy than most contemporary art objects. In the end, I turned from the empty pursuit of modern artists, who think the way to freedom and spiritual truth is through breaking the rules, and instead yoked myself to the liberating discipline of Holy Tradition - and in so doing, found true freedom, and true spirituality.
I brought my first “attempts” to an Orthodox Church in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, where I lived. At the time, I had not been baptized, and did not even believe in God.
The priest who critiqued my drafts was surprised that I had not been baptized, and suggested that it be done immediately.
I did not want to make such a decision so hastily. Nevertheless, after a long and rather painful process of reconsidering my life and goals, I was baptized into the Orthodox Church by the same priest who judged my first attempts at iconography.
It was 1991, and the Church had only begun to recover after decades of Communist oppression. Only several years before my baptism, one could be sent to jail for practicing what the state termed “illegal occupations” - including iconography. Unsurprisingly, then, there were no iconographers around to teach me the authentic way to make icons.
A friend and I began to gather information bit by bit: from studying rare books, seeking advice from restorers in museums and research institutes, making our own paints, boiling varnishes, and the like. In search of a formal teacher, I traveled to Moscow, to St. Philaret Orthodox Christian Institute, and later to the Holy Trinity Monastery in Zagorsk. Finally, I found a famous iconographer, Archimandrite Zinon, in a small skete near Pskov, thousands of kilometers from my home. It was he who introduced me to the ancient method of iconography, based on a famous medieval essay by the priest Theophilus, titled "On Diverse Arts." By his own example, Archimandrite Zinon showed me what it meant to be a true iconographer.
After many years of professional work for the Church in both Ukraine and Russia, I was invited in the year 2000 to the United States to decorate the newly built St. Seraphim Cathedral in Dallas, Texas. Since then, I have decorated many church buildings with wall murals, as well as created hundreds of icons for various churches and private customers in my studio next to St. Seraphim Cathedral.
In 2006, I was ordained a Subdeacon by His Eminence Dmitri, who was the Archbishop of Dallas and the South (OCA). I live in Dallas with my wife and children.
I accept commissions for the creation of iconostases, complete systems of church decoration of any scale, interior and exterior murals, road signs for churches, icons for personal devotion, and so forth. I also lecture about Iconography and the Orthodox Christian faith in churches and on college campuses.
Western audiences, both Christian and non-Christian, often find through exposure to Orthodox icons and practice that iconography is not a naïve or folk art which is required in church by old customs, but a revelation of eternal Truth and enormous and profound Beauty.
The art of iconography once again delivers a genuine truth about God to western civilization, affected by secularism and relativism.
Philosophy
The icon is the revelation of the Kingdom of Heaven in our material world.
It has its own iconographic space. Four dimensions – length, height, depth and time - can characterize this space.
An iconographic image is a realistic image. This is not, of course, the kind of “realism” of Renaissance painters, but rather a symbolic realism. The Icon reveals the ultimate truth about God and man. To portray the Truth about a subject – is the goal of all real art.
There is a connection and a difference between painting and iconography. A good painter seeks the truth about the created world; an iconographer shows the truth about the Creator.
Iconography is the art of arts, and an icon is more a work of art than of craftsmanship. Even though every iconographer needs to respect many rules, it is not enough to merely follow the steps from the manual in order to paint an icon. One may get only a copy of an old sample, but it is not yet an icon. I don’t mean to say that we should leave aside the iconographer’s manual, but let us put everything in its proper place.
At the same time, we cannot reduce an icon to the level of artifact only. An icon is much more, that is why an icon cannot live its whole life in a museum or in an art gallery. Only in prayer can an icon fulfill its purpose. Which is why an iconographer must be personally involved in church life.
It simply isn’t enough to repeat several times “Lord, have mercy”, a person has to devote his whole life to the Church. Iconography is a church service, and an iconographer is a servant, that is why knowledge of dogmatics, liturgics and church history is required, along with strong artistic skills.