St. Kateri Tekakwitha Icon--Fine Art Prints Available

Art prints and cards of my latest icon, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, are now available for sale at http://www.redbubble.com/people/draber/works/9701364-st-kateri-tekakwitha-icon  OR at  http://fineartamerica.com/featured/st-kateri-tekakwitha-icon-david-raber.html.  The works are offered with a wide variety of matting and farming options, or unframed up to poster size.

St. Kateri was recently welcomed into the family of recognized Catholic saints when she was canonized at the Vatican in October.


Please contact me directly for multiple prints at reduced cost, or to arrange a fundraising program for your parish or other group--offering this and/or other icons for sale.

I am currently working on a Vatican II icon, the first in a series celebrating the Year of Faith declared by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

A happy and blessed New Year to all!

Vatican II Icon--Preliminary Sketch

This is a preliminary sketch of the basic layout for the Vatican II icon I'm working on now (first in a series of pictures celebrating the Year of Faith proclaimed at the Vatican by Pope Benedict XIV).  This just shows the central part of the picture, and not the floral border I plan to put around it.

From top to bottom: alpha and omega at each corner, monogram of Christ at center; the oval-like shape being a map of the earth; St. Peter's Basilica, with the cross at its peak centered on the world map; figures involved in the council in two rows, encircled by the arcades that reach out in front of St. Peter's, with Pope John XXIII front and center; and at bottom two banners inscribed "Second Vatican Council" and "50 Years--1962-2012."  The Holy Spirit symbolized by a white dove will be in there somewhere too.

As always, I welcome all comments and ideas about this picture as it develops.

St. Isidore-Holy Family Parish Icon

Here's a snapshot of my latest icon, which represents the union of my home church, Holy Family in Ovid, MI, with St. Isidore's in nearby Laingsburg.  The holy family is pictured along with St. Isidore.  I made he figures to resemble statues from the sanctuary at Holy Family Church, and an icon of St. Isidore on the wall at St. Isidore's Church.  I'll be showing the picture after mass es this weekend at Holy Family, and then at St. Isidore's next weekend, with art prints for sale and half of the proceeds going to the parish.  I would like to do similar evnts for other parishes in the future--a special icon related to a parish event or development, or simply an icon of the parish's name saint individualized for a particular church.

St. Hilda Icon

I call it "Holy Woman, With Geese" :-).

St. Kateri Tekakwitha Icon

A snapshot of my recently completed icon of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. Prints are not yet available through redbubble.com or FineArtAmerica.com, but they are available by donation through this blog (see previous post) in a special handmade frame.

Adding to that previous post,  I also want to offer unframed prints: 8x10 for a donation of $25, 11x14 for $40 and 16x20 for $70.  Of course, any level of donation is welcome: Just let me know what you have in mind, and I am open to any request for an item you would like to have out of my stock of prints and cards.

My next icon: A nativity scene for the upcoming Christams season, and/or a special commissioned picture for a Catholic parish (working out details on that presently).

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It's New! It's Great! It's a Donate Button!

  My mother, who passed away several years ago, had a saying:  "It don't hurt to ask"--a bit of wisdom, for sure, that's applicable in many life situations--and a general idea endorsed by Jesus himself when he said, "Seek and ye shall find; knock and the door shall be opened; ask and it shall be given."

So, with my mother and Jesus behind me, I'm asking.

I'm asking for your support of my ongoing work making Catholic icons.  In return for your donation,you will receive a specially framed quality art print of one of my icons, of your choice.

A donation with a reward!  If it's good enough for Public Broadcasting, I guess it's it's good enough for me.

You could say this is just a different way to sell my art work, but it's more than that--in the same sense that you don't give a hundred bucks to PBS just to get that coffee mug or DVD of Celtic Women.  Sure, you'll enjoy your nice "thank-you gift," but you're also giving to support what you think is a worthwhile cause.

And how would I describe my my work and my cause?

Making Christian icons has always been more than just an artistic venture.  My icons are non-traditional in some ways, but I definitely see myself working in that centuries-old spiritual tradition of making icons as specifically religious objects--"windows into heaven" that allow us to communicate in a real sense with the holy person represented in the picture.

If all this is starting to sound overly theological or mystical, it is just as valid to say that the cause of my work is simply to promote the cause of the Christian faith in a specific way: by lifting up and celebrating in art the lives of those most exemplary Christians whom we call Saints.

For a donation of $125, I'll send along to you a framed 8x10 icon print of your choice (11x13 frame); for a $175 donation, an 11x14 framed print (14x17 frame).

The wooden frame (shown above) is handmade by myself, and not available elsewhere.  The interior cove molding is painted gold, and the outer part stained red-brown.  The print is affixed to a wooden panel and  protected with two sprayed coats of polyurethane.

You can choose from any of my icons shown on this blog or shown at redbubble.com, plus the Kateri Tekakwitrha icon (not yet available at redbubble.com).

To donate, just use the PayPal button at right, and let me know your icon selection via email, raberdavid@yahoo.com.  Or, you can inquire by email and we can make another payment arrangement.

 I also invite inquiries about special commissions or ordering multiple copies of unframed prints.