Opening up the icon

Laying down the initial colors of the icon is what is known as "opening up" the icon. The sankir, or skintone is a mixture of emerald green, ochre havana and french vermillion. Mary's garment is red ochre with an orange red (French vermillion and cadmium yellow orange) lining. Christ's garment should be orange red, but somehow I managed to make it only red. Mary's head covering is cerulean blue.

One victory: I got a hold of a piece of tempered glass (unused shelf from entertainment center- hmmmm...what does that mean?) and I have been mixing my pigments on the glass using a palette knife. The pigments are binding together much better.

Challenges: I discovered the tempered glass because the sankir is uneven. I have since removed the sankir from Mary's face and am in the process of removing it from Jesus' face. Not because of the unevenness, but because I made the paint too opaque and lost the guidelines :( What a mess.

Reflections: The Getty Center in LA has an icon exhibit of icons from St. Catherine Monastery on Mount Sinai- the mecca of icon writing and keeper of the oldest icons in existence. The icons at the exhibit have never left the monastery before. I have since made two trips to the Getty. Charles made one trip a couple of weeks ago. He shared some reflections and observations with me that I think would have made the exhibit more meaningful to me since I was planning on going again on the way up from visiting my mom this past weekend. I was looking forward to making my third trip, my third "pilgrimage" to the Getty.

I had been thinking about the icon- how it is about "presence" and how we are all icons of Christ. I had been reflecting on my mom's condition and how I wanted to really appreciate the time I had left with her. I wanted to appreciate where she is at now in light of the fact that she will continue to deteriorate. I have spent too much time worrying and stressing out about her deterioration and have missed out on so much. I took a lot of videotape which I am sure seemed strange to her caregivers since she does not respond much. I enjoyed my time much more than I usually do, and could just be present to her and let her be present to me. I spent a lot more time with her. I kept thinking about something Charles wrote in an article about how he discovered that a pilgrimage is not so much to a place as to a person. I felt like I had made a pilgrimage (by car) to LA and met my mom and Christ in her. On the way back, I tried to stop by the Getty but the wait to get into the parking lot was over an hour and I had some other icons (my family) waiting for me in Berkeley. I was excited to see again a wonderful icon of Mary in light of my mom's condition, but realized that my time with my mom in flesh and blood and to Christ in her was more profound than sitting in front of this historic icon of wood and paint. I got back on the 405 with no regrets.