Bücher von Mary Jane MIller

Mary Jane Miller is an Iconographer living in Mexico. This book compiled a collection of contemporary iconography and biblical women in the Sacred arts. The 42 portrayals include women on thrones like that of Saint Simona seated, women writing as intelligent teachers of truth, some conversing with men, or being robbed of investments like a priestess. Women in Iconography is a beautiful representation of images and ideas based on historical and traditional masterworks. Some icons are lesser-known saints or even unnamed. The paintings are my versions of women in Iconography, sometimes inspired to change the landscape, style, color, or symbols while keeping the intrinsic message.I have painted a collection of noble women in iconography to highlight their discipleship through their knowing Christ. The imagery is well thought out, keeping with the contemporary discussions about biblical women in Iconography. Their portrayal includes women on thrones like that of Saint Simona seated, women writing as intelligent teachers of truth, some conversing with men, or being robbed of investments like a priestess.The images and ideas are based on historical and traditional masterworks. Some icons are lesser-known saints or even unnamed. The paintings are my versions of women in Iconography, sometimes inspired to change the landscape, style, color, or symbols while keeping the intrinsic message.The Orthodox Church and its long history of Byzantine iconography have preserved a visual language used to represent the divine, as well as to help teach us about the faith. Standing before an icon provokes us to be still and enter the quiet peace that comes with surrender. When we witness the faces of women with their trance-like stares, we journey into a deep silence - a meditative silence - that allows us to contemplate and experience our thoughts. These women are witnesses to the divine as we are witnesses. However, to see more women in iconography will require new attention to the imagined greatness that the female psyche has to offer. Discover the divine beauty of women through Miller's exquisite iconographic collection of artwork in "Women in Iconography". Her depictions blend elegance with new iconography based on history, consisting of 42 icons that visually commentate on women mentioned in the Bible and throughout Christian history.Miller's compositions capture the feminist voice in Scripture, which is sometimes absent in ancient tradition. These Byzantine-style icons reveal the beauty of our female presence and our intimate relationship with the divine nature of God. Her book exhausts the purpose and unique place for women to be honored in Church for ages to come. For those studying women in Iconography, Christianity, Art History, general Iconography, women's studies, and book clubs, Miller's thoughts and illustrations are a luxurious addition to your bookshelf. Be inspired by her visual commentary on women mentioned in the Bible and throughout Christian history, and experience the divine beauty of women in iconography in a new light.

Byzantine Icons: Narrative Messages and Interpretation is an 88-page book that incorporates 36 full-color plates of my paintings, a collection of contemporary iconography inspired by classic Byzantine style iconography, painted using the traditional egg tempera technique. It is an old-world painting process of mixing egg yolk and ancient earth pigments.The practice of iconography is a visual language about God that comes alive in color and texture through practice, patience, and living tradition is always in a process of responsive development that holds together, in lesser or greater tension, the past and the present. Living tradition is always open to new possibilities, insights, perspectives, and careful, faithful editing. While not overwhelming the reader with detail, Miller provides sufficient detail to identify both the tradition received and her reading of the tradition in our current context. For example, the icon of the Pool at Bethesda (#11) where we see the stones on mountains, taken from the ancient Jewish tradition of placing small rocks on a grave, a multivalent symbol to honor the dead or the re-appearance of women in a scene where they were certainly a part of the event, but have been erased from the scene by early male iconographers in a male-dominated church.This book, Byzantine Icons: Narrative Messages and Interpretation, invites the reader to read a visual language and seek its meaning and message. On the one hand???, it is a conventionally written icon image based on a biblical text of words. On the other hand???, the reader or viewer is invited to explore the storytelling and enter the icon. The forty images, colors, and shapes engage the viewer with the narrative put forth and at times provoke a surprising response to what you see as you ponder the image. Byzantine iconography contains a powerful narrative in color, texture, and style. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case a thousand meditations. May your reading bless you, opening to you the knowledge and truth of God who created you in God's image and likeness, redeems you in your very humanness, and raises you into the new life of grace through the Son in the Spirit. May you find the infinite Mystery of God for you and with you...you who are beloved utterly by God. The story written in these icons is, finally, a love story. It is the story of God's love for us that gives us life and empowers us to live it in all its wonder.

Metal Embossing: Templates and Beginner Techniques for tooling metal foil pewter is an essential resource. Russian and Greek iconographers employ countless elaborate design styles in metal. Our How to Book is a collection of icon templates for those devoted to traditional fine craftsmanship. Beautifully embellished halos have been a Byzantine iconographical legacy and tradition for centuries. Craft and hobby lovers will enjoy this introduction to the art techniques employed in metal embossing. Create your own silver halos. The first section of the book discusses tools, supplies, and techniques. Tools and metal foil sheets are all you need to create beautiful designs. Each tool has its own character and purpose to help you press from the back to the front and flatten raised areas that get distorted. As you learn to refine the edges of your patterns, you will add a few more tools to accommodate increased skill. This book gives you a place to begin and inspires you to go further with practice. After describing the tools and supplies, I give you basic techniques, step-by-step, to teach yourself how to create borders and halos to embellish your icons. The process is simple and only requires investing hours of focused practice. After about ten hours of practice, you will begin to sense and feel the amount of pressure required to make fluid designs and textures. Experimenting will bring the best results and in no time you will be skilled enough to create beautiful work for embellishing your icons. Metal Embossing is known in Spanish as repujado. In French, they say repousse, they both mean to push. Metal embossing to make a riza or oklad, is an art form that has been around for centuries. Riza or oklad is a term used to describe the beautiful metal covers originally applied to icons so they could be protected and transported. Embossing metal imparts luster, and radiance, to an otherwise flat appearance, adding intriguing dimension, texture, and value. The artful practice of repousse and egg tempera has quietly endured for centuries. Lavish embellishments of silver, gold, and jewels to accent the beauty of icons was a common practice in Russia around the 18th century. This book is geared towards those of you in the iconography community interested in creating your own silver halos. The first section of the book discusses tools, supplies and techniques. Tools and metal foil sheets are all you need to create beautiful designs. Each tool has its own character and purpose to help you press from the back to the front and flatten raised areas that get distorted. As you learn to refine the edges of your patterns, you will add a few more tools to accommodate increased skill. This Metal Embossing How To book gives you a place to begin and inspires you to go further with practice. After describing the tools and supplies, I give you basic techniques, step-by-step, to teach yourself how to create borders and halos to embellish your icons. The process is simple, and only requires investing hours of focused practice. After about ten hours of practice, you will begin to sense and feel the amount of pressure required to make fluid designs and textures. Experimenting will bring the best results and in no time you will be skilled enough to create beautiful work for embellishing your icons

Ancient prayer traditions and contemplation have been passed from generation to generation and are still alive today. Recitations of love and reflection, alone or in a group are powerful, they nurture the soul, fuel the heart, and uplift the spirit. We focus a great deal on human needs, the sick, isolated, aged, imprisoned, and in peril. It may be prudent to add our devotion and respect for God's plan revealed on Earth. Our contemporary society does not allow us time to pause long enough to appreciate our delicate, at times imperceptible relationship to the natural order that surrounds us.A powerful sense of grace is revealed in this book as we gather for the sacramental petition, communal prayer, and a shift in our attitude toward Mother Earth. The Earth is listening, she sees our human dilemma, and she is calling us to pay attention. Mary Jane Miller has given words for us to cry out and reflect, in unison with gratitude, repentance, compassion, and guidance for the Earth's preservation.Mary Jane Miller believes that awareness and a change of heart will help us find the courage to open ourselves to deepening care for the planet. It may take some sacrifice on our part. As Christ said, "Where your heart is, there will be your treasure." If we learn to treasure the wonder of humanity, we will love the natural world that surrounds us. In Harmony with the concept, if we treasure the natural world, we will love humanity in all its magnificent diversity.In closing, Powerful Mother Earth, by your grace and intercessory power, take into your hands my confusion and fears. Holy Spirit expose my need for God and renew my soul with hope. Hear my plea for Creation. Keep me, guide me, protect me, oh safe refuge! You know very well how desperate I am, my pain, and how I am bound by ignorance. In your hands, any situation can be resolved. The divine love and immense mercies that exist in your heart move through Creation. Build in me a temple of compassionate care for humanity and our How To Live In A World That Is Dying is 72 pages designed as a resource and guide, to focus the mind and heart on one another and Mother Earth as she speaks back to us. In an age of great fear and anxiety, the book is meant as a tool to help us slow down and reflect on how we have participated in the crisis we are in, our consumerism, our desire for more, and our total disregard for the earth that sustains our world.

The Stations of the Cross became a Christian devotional practice in the thirteenth century. This collection of image and text highlights new perspectives on an ancient tradition. Miller has used the ritual metaphorically to journey with Jesus Christ from his trial to his entombment. The participants use Christian art to meditation on the Biblical story. The story of Jesus Christ's final sufferings reveal themselves like a passion play as we walk with Him to Mount Calvary. Sacred Art is more than biblical story telling. These 15 Stations of the Cross were designed to help navigate through a prescribed set of messages and motif to understand better how we humans fit into Christ's message of love. Three times he meets the Women, three times he falls and is only helped once, He is stripped of his dignity yet is resurrected into light and loving energy. The hope is to understand the ritual practice, which is no longer limited to only church, but speaks of our human capacity to go beyond suffering.

72 pages of egg tempera icon painting collection and commentary. An exploration of women in iconography and the absence of their voices in the church and icon image. Exquisitely painted icons are juxtaposed with text describing each of the images history, religious context and reflections about the world we live in today. This book is a must for any library, for those collectors of icons and those in authority who preserve this great tradition. Iconography has the potential the shape future theology through new liturgy and perspective for men and women everywhere. Mary Jane Miller's collection of new work is exquisite.

Life in Christ ~ Knowledge of God made visible in Jesus the Man is a 110-page book that incorporates 30 full-color plates of my paintings, a collection of contemporary iconography inspired by classic Byzantine style iconography, painted using traditional egg tempera technique. It is an old-world painting process of mixing egg yolk and ancient earth pigments.The practice of iconography is a visual language about God that comes alive in color and texture through practice, patience, and prayer. My dedication to this ancient tradition over the past three decades has inspired me to write, to explain, and to communicate my love of God. The narrative icons and written words are juxtaposed to highlight history, its religious context, and my own inspired reflections.The book contains three sections. Part 1, the Life of Jesus: his beginnings 2, Signs and Wonders: his miraculous events witnessed by his disciples, Part 3, Christ who is spiritually present and emotionally tangible.Church doctrines change slowly. Mostly, those with no title or schooling leave them unchallenged. But because of newly discovered texts, human creativity, and liberal artists like myself, the contemporary phrasing of old theology is contributing to re-examining who we are in God. There is a movement underway for changes in Christian ideology about women, art, psychology, and its interpretation inside the church and out. The book I have created, Life in Christ, Knowledge of God made visible in Jesus the Man is, I hope, an essential piece of this conversation.The text and imagery is a voice for yet unspoken insights and deeper discernment about what it means to live a spiritual existence. It is my great hope that the fascinating tradition inherent in icons and the unique techniques involved in egg tempera and earth pigments will speak to you and draw you into their ancient noesis.