Orthodox Icons of Olympia

In January 08' I was interviewed by Christine Valters Paintner for her blog, Abbey of the Arts. Here is the interview:

“For the invisible things of God since the creation of the world are made visible through images.”

-John of Damascus, On Holy Images

What is your primary medium?

When I write icons I work in acrylics. My other work is mixed media and acrylics.

Are you rooted in a particular faith tradition?

Oriental Orthodoxy. My husband, Fr. Michael Durka, serves as a priest for a small mission parish in Olympia, WA.

How do you experience the connection between spirituality and creativity?

When I paint an icon, I work as a scribe, which is to say I follow the canons and traditions of Orthodoxy, not my own muse. In Orthodox theology and tradition, icons are the Gospels ‘written’ in paint. Unlike the way an artist works, the iconographer doesn’t approach an icon with the attitude of “today I feel like painting the outer robe of the Theotokos* (The Blessed Mother, literally ‘God-Bearer’) hyacinth purple…maybe I’ll give her a nice smile, or paint her on a piano lid.”

If you don’t get out of the way, you end with a holy image, not a real icon with sacramental presence. In traditional Byzantine iconography, there is little room for personal expression, which is not a bad thing–it’s a different type of energy that works through prayer and fasting. You get out of the way to serve the Mysteries.

When I work on my own artwork it’s another story, I am playing! The last 2 years I’ve been experimenting with a palette minus the earthtones of the icons; thalos, magentas and every quid color I could find. I worked in paint, pencil and pastels on recycled surfaces and experimented with encaustic. I’m fascinated with texture under glazes. Most of the art I created in that time has not been shown yet.

What sparked your spiritual journey?

As a young teenager living in southern Spain, I experienced a vivid, beautiful vision that revealed Jesus as the Incarnate Son of God, the invisible made visible. The gift of that vision has been the light of my journey.

What role does your spiritual practice have in your art making?

In my church, sacraments are actions that are an expression of the Word made Flesh–the unseen made seen. Nowhere on this earth is this more densely expressed than in the Orthodox Eucharistic liturgies. Layers of gold, scripture, singing, icons, clouds and smells of incense creates a place where the Kingdom of Heaven and the place of earth meet. You can really believe this is happening–it’s not a theological idea, it’s real. Every week this experience informs my art, my life.

Detail of a Saint
Acrylic on Oak

Khouria Heather is making her work available at Arts Walk 2007 in mixed media/photo transfers on canvas, tile and wood. This series, called 'Votive Art', was inspired by her work in Byzantine iconography.

Drop by the newly opened 'Artisan's Cafe' on April 27th and say hello!

Presented by St. Ephrem Harp of the Spirit Orthodox Mission
at St. John's Episcopal Church, Olympia, WA
2007
A series of new workshops offers the experience of writing an icon in a studio atmosphere, while receiving instructions on the theology of the icon.
It is our hope that this will develop into an ongoing event!
Beginning students will write an icon of the Face of the Archangel Gabriel,
returning students an icon of the Face of Christ the Teacher.
Some students may not need the entire session to complete their icon.
Feb. 9 --- 7 - 9 pm
Feb. 10 ---- 9am - 5pm
Feb. 11 ---- Noon - 3pm
March 10 ---- 9am - 5pm
March 11 --- Noon - 3pm
March 24 --- 9am - 5pm
March 25 --- Noon - 3pm
 

Labels: Iconography Workshops

IconsAndSacredImages.com

A website of icons and sacred images.

StandingInBeauty.com

A blog of my writings. Its name is an adapted translation of "stomen kalos"




Sinai St. Gabriel the Archangel

Please let me know if you would like to be on my email contact list for workshops, lectures, events, and postings of new works.

Original Icon Commissions
are accepted, as well as orders for specially mounted limited edition prints of the icons shown on this website.
Contact me by email: HWDurka@msn.com

Please honor the opportunity to see these icons online,
and do not reproduce the images without my permission.


Vladimir Theotokos

Theotokos
commissioned for Eastern Orthodox Chapel at Ft. Lewis Army Base, WA
2005

Pantokrator
Heather Williams Durka 2002

The Workshop Retreat of February, 2006:
writing the icon of the face of the Holy Archangel Gabriel, was a particularly joyful encounter in the Mysteries of the Season of the Nativity. With the "overshadowing of the Spirit" and the seasonal movement from darkness to light, we were recollected in spiritual pilgrimage.
And in the light of the Feast of the Encounter (Feb. 2 and its festal octave), all were especially blessed to share the beauty and prayer of the Holy Angels.



Coptic Theotokos, 2005

The Workshop Retreat of May 12-15, 2005:
writing the icon of the Face of the Holy Archangel Gabriel, concluded in the Feast of Pentecost Sunday. We finished with Vespers of the Feast and the blessing of the icons, a joyful communion in the gladsome Light of Christ~

The Workshop Retreat of July 28-31, 2005:
the approach of The Feast of the Transfiguration provided us "a double blessing" in our liturgical prayer with the icons.

Thanks to Molly Gilmore-Baldwin for her article about my iconography in The Olympian 03.25.2005. Here is the text:

ARTS: Iconographer puts her heart in vivid works

A detailed painting of the Madonna and child, set off by carefully applied gold leaf. Rich colors and stylized poses. Faces that look something more than human, with big eyes and small mouths.
This sounds like a masterpiece from another time, but it's actually the work of Heather Williams Durka of Olympia.
Durka is an iconographer, an artist who paints images of Jesus, Mary and the saints that are used as part of Eastern Orthodox Church services.
"It's the gospel painted, theology in images," Durka said. "It transcends all of our doctrines in words."

The artist first encountered an icon at a street fair in 1990 and fell in love with the mysterious image. "These eyes seemed to be looking into my soul," she wrote on her Web site.

She began taking classes in iconography, and from there, she has journeyed into a new life writing icons and teaching iconography.
Her love of icons led her to a new religion -- Oriental Orthodox -- and it was through her artwork that she met her husband, Father Michael Durka.

The modern use of the icons, rendered in acrylic on gessoed wood or masonite, has extended outside of the Eastern Orthodox religions.
Heather Williams Durka recently wrote an icon of St. Benedict for St. Benedict's Episcopal Church in Lacey, and her work also can be seen at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Lacey, St. John's Episcopal Church in Olympia and St. Ephrem Orthodox Mission in Olympia, the Oriental Orthodox church where Father Durka is the priest.

Iconographers refer to what they do as writing the icons, because each icon -- meant to represent the figure as it appears in heaven -- includes very specific symbolism and lettering. The figures are posed and clothed in specific ways.
In the Theotokos (which means "God bearer"), an image of Mary holding the baby Jesus, Mary always holds her head tilted to the left, toward the child. She wears a blue robe, overlaid by a deep red one. "Red stands for divinity and blue stands for humanity," Durka explained. "She is human, but she is completely clothed in the life of Christ."

The symbolism must be exact for an image to qualify as an icon. "We don't decide, 'I'm going to do her mantle in green because I like green,' " she said. "People could do that, but it's not an icon when it happens."

In fact, even the procedure for painting the icons is part of the symbolism. The colors are applied from dark to light. "In the first chapter of Genesis and the first chapter of the Gospel of John, the light comes into the darkness, symbolizing God's love and beauty," Durka said. "Which is what this is all about."

Prayer is central to the creation of an icon, she said, pulling out a prayer that has been said by iconographers for centuries and centuries.
"Enlighten and direct my soul, my heart and my spirit," the prayer asks. "Guide the hand of Thy unworthy servant so that I may worthily and perfectly portray Thy Icon."



Mandylion, THE HOLY NAPKIN
written by the hand of Heather Williams Durka, 2005

But while Durka prays before writing an icon and while she does it, it's the creative process itself that is perhaps her most profound prayer.
"In Orthodoxy, there's a man named Bishop Theophan," she said. "He says that when you stand before God with your mind and your heart, that's prayer. And to me, doing the icons is one step more. "My heart is in my hands. It's all about prayer."

At the end of this newspaper article is a quote of St.Theophan, the beloved spiritual advisor and Orthodox bishop of the 19th century. What he actually said is that we approach God in prayer with mind in heart. The wording is theologically and spiritually significant, in that it identifies a core relationship within Eastern Christian spirituality and its conception of human nature.

Contact me by email: HWDurka@msn.com

Please let me know if you would like to be on my email contact list for workshops, lectures, events, and postings of new works.

Original Icon Commissions
now accepted, as well as orders for specially mounted limited edition prints.

Faces have always fascinated me. When I was little I carefully studied the ‘People of the World’ section in an old encyclopedia and memorized all the different facial structures, skin colors, hair types, and eye shapes.

The way I looked at faces changed one day, years later, when two faces looked back at me.


Tender Mercy Theotokos
written by the hand of Heather Williams Durka, 2000


On a side street of Seattle’s Fremont street fair in 1990, two faces stood out like a sunbreak in December from the usual array of colorful crafts for sale. Under a glass panel of a vintage jeweler’s case was a reproduction of Mary holding the infant Jesus mounted on mattboard. Mystery permeated the image with its deep colors of burgundy and blue, its rich gold haloes and cryptic lettering. The otherworldly glow of the skin and the elongated shape of the faces looked like nothing I had ever seen ~ human yet more. Then the large eyes resonated and drew me in ~ these eyes seemed to look into my soul. What was I looking at?



GoldenAngel. bw focus
Holy Archangel Gabriel
written by the hand of Heather Williams Durka, 2005


I left Fremont determined to learn more about this elusive art form. After a research session at the Seattle downtown library I discovered the historical and spiritual significance of the icon. In January of 1991 I signed up for a class on iconography given by a Greek Orthodox Presbytera (wife of the priest) from Tacoma. Over the next 10 years I attended many more icon workshops and later studied privately with teachers of traditional Orthodox iconography. Working in acrylic and gold leaf on gessoed wood panels, I’ve been writing icons ever since.

Originally made for use in the liturgies of the Orthodox Church, icons are Windows into Heaven, images of Jesus and the saints as they are framed in eternity ~ looking back at us who are here in time.
The icons offer us a sacramental encounter in the Light of Christ.



Christ the LightGiver
written by the hand of Heather Williams Durka, 2005
commissioned for Eastern Orthodox Chapel at Ft. Lewis Army Base, WA



In most Orthodox households there is a space~
and often spaces all through the household ~ where icons are prominently displayed as reminders to pause and look through heavenly windows as we hurry about our days here on earth. In recent years, as copies of the images become more readily available, this tradition has spilled out into the homes of the followers of many other faith traditions.

Icons are not individual acts of artistic creation.
Holy images are handed down faithfully through the Church from one generation of iconographers to the next. Colors remain constant, symbols and forms stay the same. Today, many images are available that vary from the Orthodox Tradition. To an Orthodox Christian it is essential that an iconographer work within the liturgical life of the Church and under the guidance of her bishops and priests.


St. Benedict
written by the hand of Heather Williams Durka, 2005
Patronal Icon commissioned by St. Benedict Episcopal Church, Lacey, WA

The faithful believers maintain that true icons are sacramental images of the Gospel and the Body of Christ in the Communion of Saints, i.e., sacramental images of transfigured life in the Church of Christ.

Just as the Christian scriptures have been translated from Aramaic, Greek, and to Latin and into other world languages, an iconographer translates the Gospel into color and image. That is why we often say the icons are written rather than painted.

So, I work like a scribe on each ‘translation’ ~ praying the individuals or congregations who have commissioned an icon ‘into’ each stroke of the brush. This is my favorite part.
That and seeing those faces looking back at me when I’m done.


Holy Apostle & Evangelist Mark
written by the hand of Heather Williams Durka, 2005
Patronal Icon commissioned by St. Mark Lutheran Church, Lacey, WA