A number of years ago I was based in a studio at Saint Saviour’s Church Pimlico. One year the Church Council and Rev. Matthew Woodward commissioned me to write an icon for the church and it was completed and dedicated this Easter. Here is a description of the icon.
The nails of the crucifixion are being carried off by the rose vine. They no longer pierce and maim but are being transformed by the creative power of the Divine. The arch is based on the front entrance of Saint Saviour’s Church. In this icon it is the entrance to the tomb. Above Jesus’s head is a crown of thorns which has also been redeemed. Jesus’s hands are held out as if to say “look these hands which have been stretched and deformed by torture still bear the marks of that torture”. In the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene goes to embrace the risen Jesus when she recognises him outside the tomb. He says to her ” Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father”. I understand this as meaning Jesus is still in a period of transition. The flowing patterns or Koru on his robes begin to show the change from linear masculine lines of dogma to creative shapes and patterns more associated with the feminine. A balance between the two states of being reflecting the true likeness of God.
