The Smiling Icon and Art
As you can read in more detail elsewhere in this blog, I first encountered the real “Smiling Icon” in Meteora, Greece. Meteora is a place in northern Greece where amazingly steep rocky crags soar straight up into the sky. I visited in the year 2003 and had an artistic encounter that had quite a profound impact on my art, and frankly, my ministry life.
I had ascended the paths to the chapels, and once there, began a walking tour through one of the many churches, admiring the ancient art on its plaster wall. My Greek Orthodox heritage had been rich with icons. I saw them at church, prayed before them every night, and carried wallet-sized laminated versions in my 5 th -grade wallet.
I prayed before one (the Virgin Mary, pictured right) who had deep-set hooded eyes like my beautiful mother, (pictured left). I even saw my beautiful mother have what she thought was a real encounter with an icon (of the Virgin Mary) when she was in the hospital for stage 4 cancer the week before she died.
She told me that when she awoke from a deep sleep, she saw her coat hung over the chair, and saw a tiny icon of “Panagiatsi” (“Pah- nah-yit-sa,” the Virgin Mary to Greeks) “appearing” to her in the lining of her coat. It wasn’t really there or was it? But it was herway of knowing God was there for her.
Through the icon’s loving, holy gaze, I’m sure God spoke to her in a way He knew meant something to her---just like He often does to me and you through whatever our holy “symbol system” is. I came to a conclusion then and there about icons and life that has fueled the fire of this artistic endeavor.
The Greek word for image is the same word translated as “icons.” And we were all created to be impactful and effective images (or icons) of God, both here on earth and in heaven above. Those who have already gone to heaven have become the “Smiling Icons”---truly content images of God overflowing with the life of God in its fullness, before whatever happened on this earth happened to them. I hope to help loved ones here below know, believe, and feel that through this art form.
