The season of Lent is a time for renewal of our spiritual lives. Consider making a pilgrimage to Trinity Cathedral and experience the beauty and power of this sacred art form. Twenty-three exquisite icons will be on view in Synod Hall between now and the first week of Easter.

The word icon is derived from the Greek eikon, meaning an image. Icons are popularly known as the art of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, but they are really much more. Graphically, they illustrate the life of Jesus Christ and his mother, Mary, as well as saints and stories from the Bible and later Christian experiences. Physically and spiritually, icons fulfill a prayerful role in church services and in the lives of the faithful.

Many paintings and objects in Western art have a Christian or religious theme, but they are not icons. Orthodox icons were, and still are, created for prayer and liturgical use in the church and for personal prayers at home or in travel.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in icons in the Western Church, in their spiritual dimension, and in making them. The icons in this exhibition were made by contemporary iconographers Father John Walsted, an Episcopal priest living in Staten Island, Suzanne Schleck, of New Jersey, Ann Sohm of Staten Island, and Lydia McKibbin of New Jersey. Most of the icons in the show are for sale. 25% of all sales go to the Cathedral.

Sponsored by ECVA New Jersey, a Chapter of The Episcopal Church & Visual Arts. Ruth Tietjen Councell, Chair.

Learn more
ECVA New Jersey website
Feature Article on artist Suzanne Schleck at Episcopal Life Online's Art & Soul

Images courtesy ECVA New Jersey, Kanuga Conference Center, and John Walsted Icons.

LAMENT – The Stations & Other Images of the Cross
An Exhibition
Washington National Cathedral
Pilgrim Observation Gallery, 7th floor
February 24–April 11, 2009

The exhibition features twenty of Margaret Adams Parker’s Laments, woodcuts which treat subjects as diverse as genocide in Darfur, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among combat veterans, and the consequences of unsafe drinking water in the developing world. These moving images of suffering bracket Parker’s stark black and white images of the fourteen traditional Stations of the Cross.

The exhibition is open daily through April 10th, from 10am to 5pm.

Parker writes, "In creating the Stations of the Cross my goal was to convey the physical and spiritual weight of Christ’s Passion.  Working on these images – across the span of 10 years – constituted a powerful meditation on the ways that the incarnate God suffers with us and for us.  That experience intensified my sensitivity to suffering and has led, quite directly, to the creation of the other Laments. I hope that, as the Stations allow us to participate in Jesus’ journey to the Cross, so the Laments call us to witness to the world’s suffering and then stir us to respond." 

About the artist
Margaret (Peggy) Adams Parker is a sculptor and printmaker.  Her sculptures include MARY, installed in the Cathedral College and churches across the country, and Reconciliation, depicting the parable of the prodigal son, at Duke Divinity School. Her sculpture, Grieving, was among six final designs considered for Alexandria’s Contrabands and Freedmen’s Cemetery Memorial. Her woodcuts accompany Ellen Davis’ translation, Who Are You, My Daughter? Reading Ruth through Image and Text;  her set of 15 woodcuts, WOMEN, is in the collection of the Library of Congress; and African Exodus serves as frontispiece to the UNHCR publication, Refugee Children.  Parker is currently depicting the Communion of Saints, life-sized figures to be etched onto glass, for St. Agnes Catholic Church, Shepherdstown, WV.  Parker has served as adjunct instructor at Virginia Theological Seminary since 1992.  She writes and lectures widely on the church and the visual arts and served as curator for the most recent ECVA exhibition: Light of the World.  www.margaretadamsparker.com

Events to Attend
* Sunday, March 15, 2 to 4pm : Reception with artist Margaret Adams Parker Open to the public
* Sunday, March 15, 3pm : Artist’s talk Open to the public
* Friday, March 13, 6 to 9pm : The Way of the Cross: A Lenten Pilgrimage with artist Margaret Adams Parker Contact 202-537-2373 for registration and fee
or pilgimages@cathedral.org

On View: to have seen what I have seen by Margaret Adams Parker, 2006, woodcut over collagraph with Solarplate etchings, 23” x 17”.
This print is based on the experiences of the artist’s son during his medical school rotation in the psychiatry ward in a VA hospital. Most of his patients were Viet Nam vets, although a few had served in Iraq, but their common problem was their inability to block out their memories of war.

The title is taken from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It is a fragment of Ophelia’s lament as she observes Hamlet’s feigned madness: “O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown…O woe is me/ to have seen what I have seen…” Ironically, while Hamlet is sane, Ophelia herself goes mad.

[Episcopal Life] The finest works of one of the most fascinating and enigmatic Dutch artists of the 17th century is on exhibit until April 26 at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The collection of 45 paintings of Jan Lievens, including The Lamentation of Christ and Samson and Delilah, as well as a selection of his drawings and prints, have been drawn from collections across Europe, England and America.

In this exhibition, the work of Lievens, a forgotten Baroque painter, is free from Rembrandt's shadow, which often eclipsed his work. Born one year apart, the two Dutch painters worked closely together early in their careers, painting one another's portraits and learning from the same teacher, Pieter Lastman. They explored similar subjects, and they influenced one another's styles. More>

Jan Lievens’ Enigmatic Career and Relationship with Rembrandt Van Rijn are reconsidered in an exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered February 7–April 26, 2009, at Milwaukee Art Museum, 700 N. Art Museum Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53202. 414-224-3200: visitor services, mam@mam.org Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam. Laurie Winters, curator of earlier European art, is the organizing curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

On View: The Lamentation of Christ, Jan Lievens, ca. 1640. Oil on canvas. Bayerisches Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich, Alte Pinakothek.
Also:
Jan Lievens, Samson and Delilah, ca. 1628. Oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Jan Lievens, Self-Portrait, ca. 1629–1630. Oil on panel. Private collection.

Gifts - An Open Studio Exhibition
sponsored by Episcopal Church & Visual Arts
encouraging visual arts in the life of the Episcopal Church since 2000
www.ecva.org

ECVA's current exhibition invited member artists to present their best work with the one distinction that the work be new to ECVA. So in 'Gifts' you will see the artists' best faces put forward, as they open their studios to us with their favorite and most moving works to date.

About the Artists: The Artists Registry members are individuals and groups who work at the intersections of art and faith. Registry members include artists, clergy, musicians, cathedrals, and congregational art groups.

On View:
- above and in the homepage masthead: "Peace" by Lucy Janjigian. Acrylic, January 2007, 36 x 24 inches.
- in Daily Episcopalian: "Cause of Our Joy" by C. Robin Janning. Mixed-media, February 2009, 11 x 14 inches.
- in Speaking to the Soul: "Give Us This Day" by Christine Wise. Oils, 2008, 12 x 24 inches.

Europeana – the European digital library, museum and archive – is a 2-year project that began in July 2007. It will produce a prototype website giving users direct access to some 2 million digital objects, including film material, photos, paintings, sounds, maps, manuscripts, books, newspapers and archival papers. The prototype will be launched by Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media.

I recommend highly the introductory video that runs on the site announcing Europeana's beta test site. The video is the source for all of the images posted with this story.

The digital content for Europeana is be selected from that which is already digitised and available in Europe’s museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. The prototype aims to have representative content from all four of these cultural heritage domains, and also to have a broad range of content from across Europe. Learn more >

The interface will be multilingual. Initially, this may mean that it is available in French, English and German, but the intention is to develop the number of languages available following the launch.

The development route, site architecture and technical specifications are all published as deliverable outcomes of the project. After the launch of the Europeana prototype, the project's final task is to recommend a business model that will ensure the sustainability of the website. It will also report on the further research and implementation needed to make Europe’s cultural heritage fully interoperable and accessible through a truly multilingual service. The intention is that by 2010 the Europeana portal will give everybody direct access to well over 6 million digital sounds, pictures, books, archival records and films.

Europeana is a Thematic Network funded by the European Commission under the eContentplus programme, as part of the i2010 policy. Originally known as the European digital library network – EDLnet – it is a partnership of 90 representatives of heritage and knowledge organisations and IT experts from throughout Europe. They contribute to the Work Packages that are solving the technical and usability issues and developing the specifications for the prototype.