Online Class!!! Mixed Media Icon Doll

This is Madame Butterfly, one of my icon dolls. You will choose your own character to personify. Although I will teach you my techniques, my goal is to assist you to stretch your creativity.

3 weeks, Aug. 7 - Aug. 29, $30

Chaska@ix.netcom.com to sign up

The Eastern Orthodox Church fully ascribes to the teachings of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (see above), and celebrates the restoration of the use of icons after the period of Iconoclasm on the First Sunday of Great Lent. So important are the icons in Orthodox theology that the ceremony celebrating their restoration is known as the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

In the traditions of Eastern Christianity, only flat images or bas relief images are used (no more than 3/4 relief). They believe the first icons of Christ and the Virgin Mary to have been painted by St. Luke. Because the Eastern Church teaches that icons should represent the spiritual reality rather than the physical reality, the traditional style of Orthodox iconography was developed in which figures were stylized in a manner that emphasized their holiness rather than their humanity.

Traditional icons differ from Western art in that they are not romantic or emotional, but call the viewer to "sobriety" (nipsis). The manner of depicting the face, and especially the eyes, is intended to produce in the viewer a sense of calm, devotion, and a desire for asceticism. Icons also differ from Western art in that they use inverse perspective (giving the impression that the icon itself is the source of light), and for this reason make very little use of shadow or highlight. The background of icons is usually covered with gold leaf to remind the viewer that the subject pictured is not earthly but otherworldly (gold being the closest earthly medium in which to signify heavenly glory).

My own idea of an icon doll is a formal, static rendering of an important figure. I would want my figure to command reverence, respect, and...perhaps...a bit of mystery.

Steampunk Doll

This delightfully charming Steampunk doll was created by Georgina Diaz who will be teaching this online class with me June 5th. It will be great fun both for doll artists and anyone else interested in what constitutes Steampunk.

This class, along with the Beaded Felt Ball Necklace class May 8, will complete the series of back to back online classes I have offered since last October when I was nudged out of retirement to teach Icon Dolls.

I will, of course, continue to create my own art. There are so many ideas which are clamoring for expression!

Beaded Felt Necklace

The supply list is now available for e-mailing to all paid students. Please see "Classes" for more information, and come join the fun!

Last Chance!

The online class Healing Doll: The Sun begins Friday, April 3rd and continues through the month. Your last chance to sign up is April 5th. After that, the class will be closed.

To register, send a note with PayPal payment of $30 to
MaiLiis@ix.netcom.com no later than April 5th.

Cigar Box Shrine Online Class

I dedicated this cigar box shrine, just completed, to my late kitty Blu....and, just for the heck of it... I named it "My Blu
Heaven". As you can see a shrine can be a happy thing,
emphasizing things which were wonderful about the person or pet's life and their relationship with you.

This piece was created in the same way that all my work is, intuitively. I wanted to do a fresh piece as a class sample, and since I had lost Blu very recently, I chose him to honor.

I found the creating of this piece a healing experience, an unexpected bonus.

In my class students will learn how to prepare a cigar box, how to gather both flat and two-dimensional objects and how to assemble them into a meaningful whole. It's mixed media assemblage and lots of fun and, just possibly, healing as well. Of course, any subject, even an idea instead of a person, is "fair game".

Leisurely Online Class, entire month of February! $30

Sign up now via PayPal. Supply list suggestions available February 1, 2009