"Our daughter is in the Peace Corps in Malawi (in eastern Africa), so painting this image also helped me feel connected with her," she said. "It is a gift for a woman who has adopted two African-American children."
SHAPES DEVOTION
Saturday, March 20, 2004
By Chris Meehan
cmeehan@kalamazoogazette.com 388-8412
As she worked on an icon of St. George slaying a dragon, Donna Rathert thought about the serious illness that she had confronted and survived.
Her work on a different icon -- an Eastern Orthodox-style version of Jesus as the Good Shepherd -- brought to mind her father, an Alzheimer's patient.
In every icon the Kalamazoo-area spiritual director and artist makes, Rathert says she combines traditional religious imagery with her own thoughts and feelings. Rathert's icons are on display at a local Lutheran church through Easter.
"This is a very powerful process," Rathert said of the work she does on icons. "I'm just a baby in this. I made my first icon-painting retreat in the summer of 2000. I had no idea what I was getting into."
Although she hasn't been at it that long, Rathert has completed 35 of the paintings, starting with St. George and the dragon on that first retreat.
A sampling of her work is on display in the narthex of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, where she is a member. As part of the exhibit, she is painting an icon of Christ on the cross. She completes a little bit each week to show people the steps she takes in bringing an icon to life.
"I love looking at her icons," said the Rev. Lor-anell Breyley, associate pastor at the church. "Each one speaks to you of Christ in the world. They give you something to focus on to help open the mind to what God might be trying to say."
Ancient, sacred art
Containing established patterns dating back to the Byzantine church of the Fifth Century, the icon is a sacred art form that has been used to portray saints and special festival celebrations of the Christian faith.
Often the iconographer prays, fasts and attends worship services in order to develop a spiritual state of mind before putting paint to wood (prevalent in the past) or paper or canvas (prevalent today).
The goal of the icon painter, says Rathert, is not self-expression. Icon painting is, rather, a highly ritualized activity that tries to lead the maker as well as the icon's viewers from the darkness of sin and selfishness to light, she said.
"Icons serve a specific purpose in the liturgical tradition," Rathert said. "They are very much a part of worshipping God. You're not out to create something original."
Through an icon, the viewer is offered a window on the sacred. It is a space that provides a prayerful glimpse into the mysterious realm of the divine.
"You're not really working on it. It's working through you," Rathert said.
Inspiration for the images, almost all representations of ancient icons, comes to Rathert through various means. Some of them she finds on the Internet, others she discovers in books, and at least one -- of an African-American Madonna and child -- is largely the result of her imagination.
Much of her work takes place in a prayer room that doubles as a spare bedroom at her home. She usually begins by drawing the lines of a figure or figures and then, as the spirit moves her, paints the faces, bodies and scenes in which the figures are set.
By imitating material that has been handed down in other icons over the centuries and by including some of her own touches she is able to establish a connection "to the whole history of people of faith," Rathert says.
As she works, she says, she pours her prayers into the icons.
"When I do them for friends, I'm praying for them at the same time," she said.
Touching on life
Rathert's work includes "The Black Madonna," which was inspired by the book "The Secret Life of Bees" in which the Black Madonna is portrayed as "earthy, feisty, and deeply knowing," she said.
She used a picture from a Christmas card as a guide in drawing the picture.
"Our daughter is in the Peace Corps in Malawi (in eastern Africa), so painting this image also helped me feel connected with her," she said. "It is a gift for a woman who has adopted two African-American children."
Then, she said, there is her icon "Descent into Hades," which depicts Christ's victory over death.
While other icons capture different moments in this story, "here we see Christ looking upon Adam with compassion, gently clasping his hand to lift him up to new life," Rathert said.
She did an icon of St. Nicholas to help children better understand the saint behind the story of Santa Claus.
"The Good Shepherd" is one that has a special meaning tracing back to her childhood, when she sang "I am Jesus' Little Lamb" in Sunday School.
"I first created this as a gift for my father, who was also partial to Jesus as Good Shepherd," she said. "Painting it gave me a chance to communicate my compassion for my father, whose illnesses had robbed him of his former vitality and joy."
Her icon "Hildegard of Bingen" reflects a resurgence of interest in this 12th-century healer, miracle worker, composer, writer, mystic, and monastery administrator from Germany.
"Her Benedictine robes speak of her call to piety, her large eyes gaze at infinity, and her small mouth is closed in the silence of tranquility," Rathert said.
Glory, not blood
The icon on which she is working during Lent for her church shows Christ on the cross. His mother, Mary, and the apostle John are at his feet.
The piece is based on "Crucifixion of Christ," painted by Master Dionysius in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Hers is not an exact copy. Instead, she incorporates an element or two from elsewhere to better fit the vision she has for the work, Rathert said.
In typical Orthodox style, the image of Christ emphasizes the glory of Jesus and not the blood and gore of the crucifixion.
"The Orthodox faith tends to focus on Christ's death as being for a greater purpose," she said. "The image of Christ on the cross is graceful. The figure is not writhing in pain."
Rathert is a trained spiritual director and a certified labyrinth facilitator, which means she has the background necessary to teach people about the purpose and religious dimensions of prayerfully walking a labyrinth's maze-like path.
But it is painting the icons that has ignited a surprising passion that brings her back two to three days a week to the room where she paints.
"I see this as an extension of my work as a spiritual director," she said. "The icons are a way to help people look at God's movement in their lives."
© 2004 Kalamazoo. Used with permission
