Instruction
The Prosopon School offers intensive week-long workshops organized in various locations throughout North America, Russia, Europe, Guatemala and the Philippines, as well as ongoing weekly classes in the instructors', and many workshop coordinators’, studios. Through these classes, students are introduced to the practical and theoretical aspects of icon writing. Interpretations of iconographic symbolism and the theological and anthropological basis of each step of the process are presented in parallel to the technical instruction. By the end of an intensive workshop, the beginner completes all of the steps of writing an icon. No artistic experience is required of the beginning student.
The School does not hold the preparation of professional icon writers as its foremost purpose, although such a possibility is not excluded. The main goal of study is rather to cultivate a clearer consciousness of the Image of God according to which man was created. The student is (re)introduced to the teaching of the Church through the language of line, light, and color. Notions are drawn from Scripture, Tradition, and Patristic thought. Through the visual language of the icon, the student may move toward a clearer understanding of that which stands beyond the symbol and toward a better vision of the self, the world, and the Divine. By writing an icon, the student works toward the reestablishment of the original untarnished condition of man’s image in a disciplined way.
