Blessing Christ

Private Collection: Thurmont, MD

Size:  12 x 16

Acrylic Gouache with 23.5 k gold leaf

Reproductions:  Prints on painted wood available (8 x 10)

Description

I started to paint this icon as a prototype for the Emmitsburg commission.  I was intrigued as I watched the icon take on fiery, nontraditional colors in the clothing and background.  The face of Christ was darker than any I had painted previously.  His face was stern, yet there was an aching compassion that emanated from his eyes.  Instead of struggling to make the icon "conform" to tradition, I let the icon take it's form, calling for the colors it seemed to want.  As I watched the face develop under my brush, I kept feeling this was a face that I had seen before, yet I couldn't place it.

It was only after I had completed the Emmitsburg commission and I contemplated both faces of Christ that I realized where I had seen this particular face before.  This is the face of Christ that had appeared to me in a dream several years prior.  In the dream, Christ spoke to me . . . "La ilaha illa 'llah." Christ spoke to me in Arabic and I understood his words.  And with those words, I began the two year heart-breaking sojourn in my spiritual life that eventually led me to this day, to this painting and to this very web page that you now read.

The messages of that sojourn are a story for another day.