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| The
Mother God and Other Secrets of the Ancient Fathers |
| This painting series was featured in: |
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Excerpts from National Catholic Reporter:
An iconographer, the 66-year-old Sr. Smith recently held an
exhibition of paintings to expand the metaphors available in people's
minds when they think about God.
The "Ancient Fathers" in Sr. Smith's exhibit are
those of the Syriac tradition. Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic,
the language Jesus spoke. These Christians' writings contain a
wealth of images of God -- Including many feminine images -- that
are not generally part of the Western Christian imagination.
All of the art [Sr. Smith] has done -- icons, paintings, and
sculpture -- opens up a different window into the Divine, allows
her to approach the same subjects with different eyes and different
parts of the brain.
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Smith said icons are left-brained whereas her painting for
the "Ancient Fathers" exhibit were very right-brained.
"I just kind of let my arm move, the whole arm,"
she said. "You get into it. It's a physical operation,
step back and dance forward and go back and forth ... It's
not linear the way the icons are: one step and then the next
step and then the next layer. |
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Comforting
Mother
The Spirit helps and comforts the martyrs as a mother comforts
her children, as told in the Eastern Syrian liturgy for the
martyrs. 2' x 3' $500 |
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| Sr. Nancy painting in Saint Joseph Studio's
main room, which houses a gallery and office |
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Holy Mother, Holy Spirit
An address to the spirit by the Bishop of Cyrene reads I
sing of the Holy Breath/Inspiration, the center point of
the Parent, the center point of the Child: she is mother,
she is sister, she id daughter; she has delivered (as midwife)
the hidden root.16" x 20" $400
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Living Breast
St. Ephrem, Syriac Father of the Church, describes the infant
Christ, who suckles, as 'the living breast': He was lying
there, sucking Mary's milk,
yet all created things suck from his goodness.
He is the living breast; from his life
the dead have sucked living breath -- and come to life.
2' X 3' $600 |
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Nursing Mother
St. Ephrem speaks of the Spirit, Attuned to us is the
Diety like a nursing woman to an infant watching the time
for his benefits, knowing the time for weaning him, both
when to rear him on milk and when to feed him with solid
food, weighing and offering benefits according to the
measure of his maturity. 8" x 10" $150
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Protective
Mother
To portray the protective enclosing of the world in
the care of God, St. Ephrem uses both the image of the
Divine womb and the Divine hand. He thinks of Him as
remote at a great distance although we are placed by
Him as if in His palm. 3' x 5' $900 (sold) |
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