Baby Jesus Icon

I made this one to be a Christmas card.  This is a snapshot of the completed picture.  I'm having it scanned right now, and it should be available at the redbubble and FineArtAmerica sites in a few days, and also directly from me.

I started out with the idea of making a nativity scene but then gravitated back to my practice of focusing on a single figure, in this case the infant Jesus himself.  The Latin motto is the traditional announcement: Christ is born.

The Incarnation will always be the central belief of the Christian faith--the idea that God became man in the form of this Jesus of Nazareth who walked the earth and gave us, by his teaching and by his example,  the definitive revelation of God.  And this man started out like all the rest of us, as a small helpless baby born of a woman.  I hope this picture does something to communicate this Christian belief and this faith in a man who was also God, though we will never fully understand this mystery in this life.

A merry and blessed Christmas season to all, and a happy new year!

Face of Christ Icon

My most recent icon.

The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus was in all things like use except for sin. He walked the earth, loved his friends, felt anxiety and pain, suffered death. And so depcictons of the human face of Jesus have had an important place in Christian art. Here is another attempt to make that connection between ourselves and this man who Christians believe was also the Son of God, and a revelation of God, in a sense that no other human being was.

The red roses stand for the Passion and Crucifixion, the lilies for the Resurrection.

Art prints of this icon, framed or unframed, are available to buy at  http://www.redbubble.com/people/draber/works/12416821-face-of-christ?ref=recent-owner 

It is also available there printed on a t-shirt.

Franz Jaegerstaetter Icon--Snapshot

Franz Jaegerstaetter was an Austrian farmer executed by the Nazis for refusing to serve in the German army during WWII.  Against all motives of patriotism and even against the interests of his family, and certainly counter to his own personal  interests, Jaegerstaetter refused to serve the cause of evil because he believed God's imperatives come before all else.  He was a committed Catholic who fearlessly thought through the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Church, and he followed through on what he knew to be right.

Jaegerstatter was one of the millions who died as a victim of WWII.  Many millions of those were innocents, and many millions of others died in war fighting either for or against the Nazis.  Those who fought in the war are hailed as heroes, willing to die in a fight against evil, but we should ask ourselves, How much pain and suffering and death might have been avoided if sizable numbers of others, within the German Reich and elsewhere, would have been wiling to die in peaceful protest against the Nazi war machine?

The frame of the picture is made up of symbols and images related to the Nazi-dominated socio-political world that framed the life of Franz Jaegerstaetter and his family and friends and fellow citizens of Austria.  The saint is pictured within a sort of mandorla that shows forth a better world--the local world of the saint's home region, surrounded by a border representing his home nation, Austria, through flowers and foliage associated with that nation (the Austrian rose and edelweiss.  Jaegerstaetter's parish church and the house on his farm flank the saint.  Emanating from the mandorla is a sort of secondary halo spreading its light over the framing background of evil that is overcome by the work of Christ in the world such as that done through and by the followers of Christ.

Out and About--Pax Christi Michigan Conference

On Sat., March 29 I will be presenting my icons as a vendor at the Pax Christi Michigan conference at Christo Rey Church in Lansing.  I look at this not only as a great opportunity to put my work out there in front of people, but more importantly to learn about the work of this organization and the peace movement arising out of the Catholic Church.

Here's a link to the Pax Christi Michigan website: http://www.paxchristimi.org/

Dorothy Day Icon Completed; Original Icons for Sale

This is a snapshot of my latest icon--Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and a tireless worker and advocate for peace and on behalf of the poor in America during the Great Depression and after.  Day has been declared a "Servant of God" by the Vatican, the first step on the road to being recognized by the Church as a saint.  This is a title I use for her in the picture, "Servant of God," because even when she is further recognized as a saint, that title will certainly still be an apt description of this faithful Catholic who gave her life over to God and God's children.

This picture is not yet available as prints at redbubble.com or FineArtAmerica.com, but should be soon.  To speed up this process, and to receive an 11x14 fine art print of the icon, with a handmade frame, consider donating to the cause (PayPal button at right), $350 or more.

Right now I'm working on an icon of Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian Catholic who died at the hands of the Nazis for refusing to cooperate with the German war effort during WWII.

In other news, I will soon be offering my icon originals for sale, including the Day icon and many others.  The pictures are 16x20 or 18 1/2 x 22, made of cut paper, ink and acrylic paint.  Prints and cards are available at the sales websites mentioned above.