Iconographer Gets Divine Hand
The gold leaf wouldn’t stick on the painting of John the Baptist, and Eleni Schumacher was frustrated.
She worked on it at the same time she worked on a picture of the angel Gabriel and did everything the same.
“The gold on Gabriel was great,” she says.
A skilled Christian iconographer, Eleni knew to stop working. Painting religious icons - Biblical pictures that invite God’s presence - is as spiritual as it is artistic.
Her John the Baptist bore the wings of a messenger. He apparently had a message for Eleni.
“I found out later that day that my husband was in the hospital with a heart attack,” she says. “Icons are not just pictures.”
Eleni, 45, was raised Greek Orthodox, but showed sporadic interest in her church as an adult. A priest/monk passionate about his faith resurrected her interest six years ago.
Art has always played a role in her life. She taught teachers as an occupation, and art in the schools as a volunteer.
In 1993 she found an ad for an icon-painting class. The ancient art seemed a good way to tie her closer to her faith.
In the fifth and sixth centuries, iconographers were killed for their art after religious officials designated it idol-making. The church reversed its position in the seventh century and icons have remained an important element in orthodoxy ever since.
Eleni’s first teacher was a Russian traditionalist. He insisted on pure materials, each of which is symbolic of God’s creations, and on following a prescribed sequence to produce icons acceptable to orthodox churches. One step requires her to warm the painting surface with her breath.
Subsequent teachers have taught Eleni more relaxed methods. Now a bishop-blessed iconographer and teacher, she follows both.
A gold candle burns as she paints in the basement workshop of her Rathdrum home. A bottle of distilled holy water sits at the corner of her latest project, the Annunciation.
This picture of Gabriel offering Mary the opportunity to give birth to the son of God began on nonresinous poplar. The wood represents plants.
Eleni carved out a section in the middle to represent Noah’s Ark, glued on linen to symbolize the Holy Shroud, and covered the entire board with a natural plaster to represent earth.
She buffed the plaster into a silky white that represents the presence of God. Every color symbolizes something.
She warns budding iconographers that practice to improve technique can endanger their spiritual lives. She also warns against correcting mistakes, which are demon-caused and, like any experience, should be learned from but not erased.
Eleni’s icons hang in Lutheran churches in Bellevue, Wash., and St. Petersburg, Russia. She’s hoping to arrange an icon exhibit in Spokane next spring.
“It brings me closer to God and the traditions of orthodoxy,” she says, studying the half-finished icon on her worktable. “It connects me more with who I am.”
Box ‘em up
If stuffing my face will provide a scholarship for a Lake City High senior or two, then fill my plate higher.
Lake City’s Parent Advisory Council’s first annual Family Box Dinner on homecoming weekend scored well in the community last year.
Parents, students and friends ate with people they hadn’t seen in years. It raised enough for two $500 scholarships.
This year’s dinner is 5-7 p.m. Friday in the LCHS commons. Box dinners are $5 each and include beef, turkey or a veggie sandwich, chips, drink, dessert and a mysterious surprise.
Orders have to be in today. Call 769-0769 or 666-1126.