Six Days of Creation workshops are “more than an art lesson”—an interview with a veteran participant

Bess Crider was a participant in the Six Days of Creation workshop with Xenia Pokrovsky held in 2005 in Maggie Valley, NC. She also took a workshop in 2004 in Kentucky and plans to participate in the 2006 workshop in Maggie Valley, Oct. 29-Nov. 4. Between workshops Bess works hard at what she has learned and her progress amazes her teachers. “Bess is talented,” says Pokrovsky. “We can believe she will not give up. She is a serious student, not a dilettante; she will work and we will help her.”

Bess and her family live in Bryson City, NC and are converts to the Orthodox faith. They attend Sts. Joseph and Andrew Orthodox Church, sponsor of the workshops in North Carolina. Long before she took her first workshop, Bess had been attracted to the beauty of icons. She read books about iconography and began to search for someone to teach her how to write icons.

“One of the things that drew me to study iconography is the need for a discipline to help steer me toward the ‘best things’,” Bess confesses. “Appropriately, my patron saint is Martha, even though I long to be like Mary. Iconography helps me be more like Mary.”

Bess is indeed a mighty Martha! It was through her dogged efforts that the Six Days of Creation came to Maggie Valley. During the workshop, Bess was a constant encourager to other participants and a cheerful exemplar of one who has “chosen the better part.”

Question: What have you learned from the Six Days of Creation workshops?

Bess: I came to the workshop wanting more than an art lesson, and I was not disappointed. The lectures, church history lessons, and slide presentations were all important pieces in helping me understand iconography. As a convert who has only attended small mission parishes, I had no previous exposure to original icons, and I appreciated seeing those the instructors brought for us to examine. I found it easy to learn with the workshop format: ample time to work; demonstrations; and individual instruction geared to proficiency level. Xenia's method is very direct and practical, and having the manual of her teaching method, superbly written by Marek Czarnecki, is a wonderful gift for students.

Question: Can you explain more about Xenia’s teaching techniques?

Bess: Both Xenia and Marek went the extra mile in answering my questions –technical and theoretical, spiritual and historical. The depth of knowledge Xenia possesses on many, many subjects is astonishing. And Marek has a real gift for communicating complex ideas in a way the novice can grasp. At my second workshop, I brought my work to be critiqued and I received some very good instruction by doing that. I encourage everyone to do that; it can really push your work forward. Xenia told me she thinks ‘Americans are heroic’ because we are trying to learn icons from books and reproductions, without having many good originals to guide us.

Xenia impresses me as a woman with an iron core of strength. I observed how kind but firm she was with students. As a teacher, she is able to break things down into small steps so that students can find success. She also uses really practical examples.

Question: What are your final thoughts on the workshops?

Bess: I am so glad I have been able to attend two workshops. I came to my first workshop with no knowledge at all. I had little intuitive understanding of color and color combinations. I didn’t know what things to pay attention to in the lines and shapes. I had no experience working with a brush, much less egg tempera and pigments.

Because I went home and worked on the things I had learned, I was able to learn much more during the second workshop. In fact, several light bulbs went on for me at the second workshop, particularly understanding inverse perspective and what it means, not only artistically but also theologically. Xenia also gave me ideas for what else I should work on. She looked through books with me to select good prototypes and even told me to go home and spend a week playing with every color combination in my palette.

Marek has been kind enough to answer many of my questions by email and telephone, and has even offered critiques when I sent him photos of my problems. I generally print out his responses to my questions because they are so well communicated and I know I will want to read them again. (I have saved them in my notebook. He doesn't know that!) I believe it was Marek's good instruction on faces at the first workshop that enabled me to be successful with my attempts at home.

My only other comment is that I have received special blessings from each of these workshops that went beyond the icon painting instruction. The other people attending have given me gifts, just by sharing their stories and knowledge. And I appreciate beginning each day with prayer.