Help with obtaining an icon

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BusterMartin

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I was wondering if anyone might be able to provide any guidance or assistance with this request please. I would like to have an icon of a particular RC Blessed so that I can gift it to a friend of mine when he is ordained as a priest. However, there is currently no icon to be found. I even reached out to one of the nuns that has access to her relics and they do not have any. Does anyone know of someone who might be willing to paint/write an icon for this reason? Unfortunately, money is an object, so this would need to be done as a free will offering for the priest or with a nominal fee. I can’t afford to pay the cost a hand-written/painted icon normally runs. Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide!
 
Is it of a modern Blessed? Like Mother Teresa, a nice photograph might do. I have seen portraits of popes and saints and blessed in friends homes.
 
Casilda said:
Is it of a modern Blessed? Like Mother Teresa, a nice photograph might do. I have seen portraits of popes and saints and blessed in friends homes.
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Yes, and there are some photos, but we are definitely looking for an icon if possible. Thank you for the suggestion, though!
 
Almost any Catholic item with a religious theme can be dubbed as an icon. Go to Amazon.com I like the one of Mary, Undoer of Knots. I was thinking that a new priest will get a lot of gifts with a religious theme. You know, he might just enjoy a gift certificate to a good restaurant. You know he will probably be on the go 24/7 and miss meals. Just my idea.
 
Mary_Estelle said:
Almost any Catholic item with a religious theme can be dubbed as an icon. Go to Amazon.com I like the one of Mary, Undoer of Knots. I was thinking that a new priest will get a lot of gifts with a religious theme. You know, he might just enjoy a gift certificate to a good restaurant. You know he will probably be on the go 24/7 and miss meals. Just my idea.
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An icon is not just art, there are schools of iconography and these require being taught by a holy iconographer. There are rules in regard to color, material, features, etc. Not only this, legitimate iconography is drawn/written through prayer and fasting, not just paint and canvas.
 
All the Eastern orthodox churches have resources for Icons Each Madonna Icon has a meaning. i.e Mary for praying for intentions of increased faith. Mary for praying for intentions of healing, etc. My Georgian orthodox friend has said book. Very interesting. Google Orthodox Madonna Icons. If you know what your friends intent is, add that to the google question. There maybe a search on the Icon site. If your looking for a Jesus Icon=same source. Orthodoxy is the source of icons.

in Christ’s love
tweedlealice
 
SyroMalankara said:
An icon is not just art, there are schools of iconography and these require being taught by a holy iconographer. There are rules in regard to color, material, features, etc. Not only this, legitimate iconography is drawn/written through prayer and fasting, not just paint and canvas.
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Yes, but the poster is looking for an icon that is affordable to him. I agree with your post, but how many of us can afford what is prescribed. Icons, like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. Be at peace. Icons are material representatives that are to remind of the spiritual.:heaven:
 
It helps to remember that the cost is so high because of all the materials. 🙂 The boards themselves can run about $90-$125 for a 9.5x12.5 or an 11x14. Plus, there’s the price of the gold, the price of the pigments, etc. In class; we’re lucky to finish them in six eight-hour days, with a teacher to mix our colors for us. If it’s one that doesn’t have a pattern, I know people who pray and meditate for months as they try to develop a relationship with the individual they wish to depict. More prayer and meditation as someone tries to determine a particular shade of color. And so on. I’d love to get to the point where I could do things outside of class, without a teacher at my elbow— but it can be very intimidating for a beginner to experiment with such expensive materials and not have a teacher’s skill close by. Skill has value, too! 😛

–edit-- Out of curiosity, Syro, what makes the one you posted “not conforming to traditional standards”? It looks like a very nice Russian-style icon, and I don’t see anything amiss with it at all. It has a Prosopon-ish feel to it, the style of which takes its roots in 15th c. Russia. Here’s one that’s a little more 19th c., perhaps.

bridgebuilding.com/narr/nomot.html

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
Thank you to all for the replies! I appreciate each one of them. I would like to clear up any confusion, though. I am looking for an icon of a specific RC Blessed. I know which Blessed, and through my research and through speaking with the nuns who have access to her relics, there are no icons available for her. She has plenty of pictures available, but the gift I would like to give is an icon (in the traditional Eastern style) of this particular Blessed. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to pay for one as I have limited extra funds, have another baby on the way, and so on. So, I am hoping (and praying) that someone who writes/paints Eastern icons would be willing to donate one to my friend who is to be ordained a priest in under a year. He will be ordained a transitional Deacon in a few short weeks (I have a gift for that), but I’m trying to think ahead for his ordination to the presbyterate. If you are, or if you know someone who is, able to help with this as a good will offering (or with minimal financial payment), please let me know. Once again, thank you for the help and suggestions!
 
BusterMartin said:
Thank you to all for the replies! I appreciate each one of them. I would like to clear up any confusion, though. I am looking for an icon of a specific RC Blessed. I know which Blessed, and through my research and through speaking with the nuns who have access to her relics, there are no icons available for her. She has plenty of pictures available, but the gift I would like to give is an icon (in the traditional Eastern style) of this particular Blessed. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to pay for one as I have limited extra funds, have another baby on the way, and so on. So, I am hoping (and praying) that someone who writes/paints Eastern icons would be willing to donate one to my friend who is to be ordained a priest in under a year. He will be ordained a transitional Deacon in a few short weeks (I have a gift for that), but I’m trying to think ahead for his ordination to the presbyterate. If you are, or if you know someone who is, able to help with this as a good will offering (or with minimal financial payment), please let me know. Once again, thank you for the help and suggestions!
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Oh, and this is not for an icon of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. I was saying yes on my earlier posts that it is for a more recent Blessed like her, but not for her specifically. Sorry for the confusion there.
 
midori said:
Out of curiosity, Syro, what makes the one you posted “not conforming to traditional standards”? It looks like a very nice Russian-style icon, and I don’t see anything amiss with it at all. It has a Prosopon-ish feel to it, the style of which takes its roots in 15th c. Russia.
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I like it, but it does have a certain neo-modernish look to it, in the sense that it tends toward realism rather than the older style. However, my preferences are Syriac and ‘old’ Coptic icons, although the newer Coptic ones are more popular these days.
Here’s one that’s a little more 19th c., perhaps.
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bridgebuilding.com/narr/nomot.html
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http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k27/jakyl32/365 Rosaries- SEPTEMBER/95teresa33.jpg
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I like this particular one also, but didn’t refer to this because of the vendor. They carry some very questionable so-called ‘icons’ including some seemingly promoting homosexuality and pantheism/paganism.
 
Mary_Estelle said:
Yes, but the poster is looking for an icon that is affordable to him. I agree with your post, but how many of us can afford what is prescribed. Icons, like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. Be at peace. Icons are material representatives that are to remind of the spiritual.:heaven:
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Many hermits simply carry a printed image of an icon. These are affordable if one can be found.
 
Customary icons are readily available at reasonable prices (using prints). The challenge here is that one is sought for a recent Blessed. Chances are if that Blessed doesn’t have some association with one of the Eastern Catholic Churches, it may not have been even prototyped.

For example, an icon was commissioned for Blessed Teresa Demjanovich, canonized here in the US last fall. She was born a Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholic (and remained so canonically), though a Latin Catholic nun. The Byzantine Catholic Church commissioned the icon.
 
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