Lake Ozark women share the joy of iconography
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The women carefully applied layer upon layer of color to the canvases before them.
Their pigments, purified with holy water, brought dimension, depth, tint and tone to the faces of Mary and her beloved Son.
“There’s something to be said for putting yourself internally in a place for God to use you as a means of grace,” said Lusica Hankins, a member of Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Lake Ozark. “To just sit here and look at a blank canvas and say, ‘God, I don’t really know how to do this, but I’m in a community of people who want to support me and see me succeed.’”
Mrs. Hankins and 16 other women spent five days together, writing icons.
Yes, writing ... but with brush strokes rather than words.
An icon is a sacred artwork that depicts Jesus, the Blessed Mother or a saint according to an established artistic order that developed and flourished in the early centuries of the Church.
Created in a deliberately prayerful and meditative state, icons are tools for contemplation with God and the Communion of Saints.
“One of the things you see differently with in icon is the perspective,” said Beverly Layton, a professional iconographer from Oklahoma, who led the women through each intricate step of writing icons.
“In life, what you see points to a vanishing point, with everything getting smaller and smaller as you reach that point,” she noted. “But with an icon, everything points to the viewer, and you become part of it.”
Mrs. Hankins and her husband, Deacon James Hankins, are longtime friends of Mrs. Layton and her husband, Deacon Anthony Layton, and of assistant instructor Teresa Cara and her husband, Deacon Wuse Cara, from their days together in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.
Mrs. Hankins invited Mrs. Layton to lead a five-day icon-making workshop in the Our Lady of the Lake Parish Hall.
Fifteen women from the Lake Ozark parish set aside the time to join Mrs. Hankins and Mrs. Cara in prayerfully writing images of the Blessed Mother under her title Our Lady of Tenderness.
“It truly was a blessings-filled week, with fellowship, prayer, learning and inspiration,” one of the women stated. “Friendships were formed, gifts were shared and each woman brought her own faith, creativity and heart to this special experience.”
Art and intercession
Icons are an ancient form of sacred Christian art that draws upon an extensive lexicon of religious symbolism to depict Christ, Mary and the saints with haunting clarity and simplicity.
Iconography in the Roman Catholic tradition gradually yielded to other forms of art in the centuries after the Great Schism of 1054 A.D.
Mrs. Layton, who has led iconography workshops all over the country in the past 26 years, sees Catholic icon revival on the horizon.
“There’s kind of a movement to bringing icons back into the Catholic experience,” she said.
The theology of iconography is rooted in the Incarnation: the core Gospel truth that Christ, the Son of God, became fully human while remaining fully divine.
For centuries in the Church in the West and up to this day in Eastern Orthodox Churches, the faithful have recognized the work of the iconographer’s brush as a true but imperfect reflection of God’s own glory, echoing St. Paul’s words of encouragement to the Christians in Corinth: “At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then (we shall see) face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known,” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
As such, creating an icon is deeply prayerful, allowing the Holy Spirit to turn what otherwise would be simply a religious picture into a two-way window to heaven.
“There’s an intense amount of prayer that goes into creating an icon,” said Mrs. Layton. “What we have here is really a spiritual experience as well as an art class.”
In this case, the women began each day by praying a special iconographer’s prayer together. They also prayed the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet together at least once each day.
Recordings of Gregorian Chant played gently in the background throughout the week.
“And each person has intentions that they pray for while they’re working on the icon,” said Mrs. Layton. “Everybody has somebody they’re praying for during the icon class.”
Once completed, an icon is blessed by a priest or deacon and is thereafter handled with respect and honor.
“You pray with them, not to them,” Mrs. Layton emphasized. “You pray with them and with the saints they depict.”
One of the women who signed up for the workshop in Lake Ozark could not attend, due to a family emergency.
“We’ve all been praying for her, and we’re doing her icon for her,” said Mrs. Layton.
Out of darkness
An iconographer starts with a blank piece of wood, works up a charcoal outline and starts building up layers of color, beginning with the darkest.
“And then, layer after layer, lighter and lighter and lighter,” said Mrs. Layton.
The brighter shades come from mixing more water — in this case, holy water — into the paint on the palette.
“And so, you bring the darkness into light,” she stated.
The final layer is known as the “divine lights” — the little touches of light on facial features that increase depth and clarity.
Throughout the process, a relationship inevitably unfolds between the iconographer and the saint depicted in the icon.
“The further along the face comes toward reality, the saint starts helping me, because we have a connection now,” said Mrs. Layton. “Especially when their face is done and they have eyes that you helped form, they start to help you.”
She said women mostly sign up for the workshops she leads, although some men occasionally take part.
The Laytons and Hankinses became close friends while the husbands were in formation to become deacons for the Oklahoma City archdiocese.
The Hankinses later moved to the Lake of the Ozarks and joined Our Lady of the Lake Parish, where Deacon Hankins assists the pastor.
Mrs. Layton has written icons of many sizes for private homes, schools and churches, including large icons for her own parish, Holy Family in Lawton, Oklahoma, and the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City.
The latter required her to work from photos and descriptions of the martyred missionary to Guatemala, who died in 1981.
She collaborated with the archbishop and a deacon of the Oklahoma City archdiocese to determine the right kind of image and colors.
“You basically have to immerse yourself in his relationship with God and see the world through his eyes,” she stated.
Our Lady of Tenderness was the first icon she wrote 26 years ago.
“I fell in love with that image,” she said. “How can you not when you’re painting the face of the Mother of God? Especially when she’s looking with such care toward her Son?”
Mary’s face is shown with the infant Jesus’s face pressed close to hers.
“That’s such a tender moment,” said Mrs. Layton. “That’s why she’s called Our Lady of Tenderness.”
Mrs. Layton explained to her pupils about setting aside a sacred space in their homes to display their icons, where they can go in silence and pray without distraction.
She said she readily recognizes how her own artwork pales in comparison to God’s.
“It’s like a sunset,” she said. “There’s no artist who can do a sunset like God can.”
It is written
Catholic iconography follows a clear, established language.
“We all develop our own technique and put it out there,” Mrs. Layton noted. “But the icons themselves have a certain pattern for you to follow.”
Catholic icons of saints generally have their names written beside them.
Icons depicting Jesus contain the letters “O W N,” which in Greek stands for “I Am.”
Icons depicting the Blessed Mother are embellished with the letters “MP OV,” a Greek abbreviation for “Mother of God.”
Mary is also depicted with three stars, referring to her perpetual virginity before, during and after the birth of Christ.
Red points to martyrdom. White points to purity. Gold points to heaven.
Saints who are martyrs are often depicted with an indication of how they died, such as St. Lawrence, who was sentenced to death by burning, holding a hot gridiron.
“That’s why we say we’re writing icons,” said Mrs. Layton. “We’re telling a story, and you learn to read them.”
Unbroken circle
Lake Ozark parishioner Patty McNally had dabbled in artwork decades ago, using pen and ink, pencil and charcoal.
Having a brush in her hand did not come naturally. Neither did letting go.
“The perfectionist in ‘Picky Patty’ had an epiphany partway through the week when I realized I was missing out on part of this holy adventure due to my intense concentration, trying to do each layer of color and brush stroke just right,” she said.
The journey was much more meaningful for her from that time forward.
Parishioner Alice Hand, who was sporting an artist’s-style beret, got to see an abundance of icons during a trip to Greece last year.
“But I’m not an artist,” she said. “I can’t even draw a circle.”
She told everyone at the beginning that “you girls are going to witness a miracle here” if she successfully writes an icon.
“It’s been such a wonderful adventure,” she said, looking around at the other women and down at her impressively progressing icon.
Parishioner Gayle Pleus spoke of the latitude within the rules of iconography that allow each icon to be written uniquely.
“We all put our little touches on the color or the drawing,” she said. “You have to follow the rules, but within the rules, you can give a little bit of yourself to the Blessed Mother and to Jesus.”
Mrs. Hankins likened the subtle differences among each icon to newborn babies in a nursery.
“To an outsider, they all look kind of alike,” she said. “But to you, it’s like, ‘But this one’s mine!’”
Another parishioner said the experience of writing icons could help her become a better parent.
“It’s overwhelming, but it’s doable,” she said. “And it’s very forgiving. It’s great practice in patience for me.”
A gift for Jesus
“This has been way more spiritual than I ever dreamed,” one of the women stated. “When we go home, we’ll take with us a blessed piece of artwork and incredible memories of this group.”
Patty couldn’t hold the tears back when Monsignor Gregory L. Higley, pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Parish, blessed the finished icons and when her fellow iconographers then venerated each other’s blessed artwork.
“There were so many spiritual surprises this week — prayer, music and magical moments with my sweet Catholic sisters,” she stated. “I cherish the memories and will hold them in my heart forever.”
Mrs. Layton believes that being able to write icons and teach others to do so is a gift from God that she is called to share.
She said someday, she hopes to meet Jesus at the Gates of Heaven and present to him some of her best work.
“I want to say, ‘Jesus, this is what I thought you looked like the whole time,’” she said. “‘This is how I depicted you with my own hand and my own eyes.’”
