Barbara Dawiczyk Vartenigian has found her calling as an iconographer, a painter—or transcriber—of the images of Christ, Mary, and the saints in a centuries-old tradition of the Russian, Greek, and Byzantine artists.
The Norwich resident has 24 religious icons and three drawings on display at the Gilded Edge, a custom framing shop and gallery in the crossroads of routes 82 and 85 in Salem, through April 5. The shop, owned by Susan Jacobs of Marlborough and Rose (Rosemary) Fennell of Colchester, aims to be a destination framing shop and a promoter of local painters, photographers, and other artists.
This is the largest collective display of Vartenigian’s icons, works she started creating about five years ago. An accomplished print-maker, her work was influenced by growing up in a Polish home, community, school, and church, attending St. Cyril and Methodius in Hartford.
“I grew up with all the patterns in the church, the beautiful designs, with some flavor of the old country. Tons of beautiful hand-painted designs, including Our Lady of Czenstohova, the beloved patroness of Poland,” she said. “As my own spiritual life grew, as I was growing up, I was aware that these were beautiful religious drawings. But I didn’t realize the process of painting icons is still being taught now.”
After finishing college, Vartenigian got married, moved to Norwich, and raised a family. She showed her drawings and prints and entered competitions throughout New England.
“You know how life takes you on different roads,” Vartenigian said. “Every now and then I would do a pencil-and-ink drawing on a religious theme, and it would get accepted.”
One day, helping a priest to restore a statue, she met the iconographer Marek Czarnecki, who needed to compare shades of blue in the icons he was working on with the blue on the statue. She became his student. Czarnecki, who now lives in Meriden, has studied for years with a world-renowned Russian woman who paints huge door-sized icons, including one for Saint Sophia in New London.
Vartenigian was inspired by a trip to Russia, where she got to see some of the most widely recognized icons at St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow and Our Lady of Kazan, a very popular image with the Russian people, in Red Square, as well as in other towns off the beaten tourist path.
“In Russia, they are lucky because they can go to any church on any corner and see hundreds of icons. Here we have very few icons, and not all iconographers are being true to the canon. Some are doing their own thing,” Vartenigian said.
Vartenigian stresses that she is doing liturgical work, in the tradition of iconography of copying, not purposefully deviating from earlier works.
“We transcribe, as a monk would transcribe scripture. It’s called writing an icon because of the constant line work, right from the onset to the finish,” she said. “We have to stick to the canons, with no changes in what is directly connected with the Bible. This is liturgical work, so we have to be liturgically correct.”
The process works with egg tempura, natural pigments, and materials applied to Baltic birch plywood. The recipes are the same as used in old Russia, she said. Some of the early Greek icons, from the Isle of Crete, and early Russian icons, are from the 11th through 16th centuries.
Most of the time, Vartenigian’s painting is based on museum-quality prints of old originals. She has built her own files of prints she collected or photographs she took on her trip to Russia. It’s difficult working from photos, she said, but once an artist has created an accurate prototype, they can keep it on file and work from that.
“Icons are supposed to be vehicles to meditate and pray. They are equal in importance to scripture or a rosary or a cross in leading one into meditation and prayer. People have to realize that they are not praying to the icon, but to the person it represents.”
She has completed nine commissioned pieces, mostly home-sized pieces of work, 11 by 14 inches, for private use. Once she completes a piece, she said, a person can have it blessed to activate the graces.
“I’m surprised how little is known about icons,” she said, admitting that after five years, she is still just learning. “When you study iconography, it never ends.”
This is the largest showing of her collections, but she has had individual pieces in prestigious juried Connecticut arts shows, including at the Slater Museum. Most of the time, she said, shows go for secular, or non-religious works.
Some of her icons can be purchased after the Gilded Edge exhibition. Others will become the prototypes that she can use, once commissioned, to create icons for others. It takes about four months to work one up, she said.
A few years back, Vartenigian met Fennell over a cup of coffee through friends and family connections. She happened to have one of her icons, then a class project, with her. Fennell encouraged her to stay in touch, and it eventually led to this show.
This year the studio plans to have six artist showings, from solo to groups of artists. Past exhibitions have included works by East Lyme High School students. Many of these can be viewed on the shop’s Web site.
“We’re very community oriented as a local shop and gallery,” Jacobs said. “We like to look for win-win situations where we can promote local artists.”
Jacobs and Fennell each had been working in different frame shops and met each other at a jewelry-making class. Fennell’s creations, made with gemstones, minerals, and some beadwork, are on display in the shop.
“We both had some really good ideas, decided we wanted to go out on our own, and we did,” said Jacobs. The shop celebrated four years in December.
When sales reps first came calling on the Gilded Edge, she said, they thought they were in the middle of nowhere. That helped to convince the two owners to make the shop a destination among artists and art lovers.
Their professional framing services range from hundreds of moulding styles from classic and contemporary, museum-quality glass and conservation-quality mounts to mirrors, laminating, needlework, and canvas stretching, shadow boxes, plaques, and flag cases.
“We love our customers,” Jacobs said. “They all have their own stories, and I think because art is so personal, we learn about the people that bring it in.”
The Gilded Edge is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., as well as by appointment. For more information, call 889-4903 or visit www.thegildededge.com.