Panagia Icons

About Panagia icons

Panagia Icons is dedicated to the Theotokos, the intercessor and protector of Christians.  Panagia is from the Greek and means "all-holy".  We as Orthodox Christians do not worship Her; but we recognize, and the Church has taught for two millenia, that She held in her womb the uncontainable, God Himself, and as such She is the Mother of God.

She is our constant intercessor before God, and in the icon of the Panagia, she stands with hands extended in supplication to God.  Within a mandorla, symbolizing Heaven, the icon of Christ is shown, reinforcing for all that She is truly the Mother of God.

More honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim; Thou who without corruption barest God the Word, and art truly Theotokos, we magnify Thee.

The iconographer

I converted to the Orthodox faith on Holy Saturday, 2000.  From the first time I ever stepped into an Orthodox church and saw the iconostasis, I knew I had to learn to write icons.  My formal educational background and professional experience are in psychology, and I was for a number of years a school psychologist before ill health forced me to quit working.  Of course, I now have much more time for prayer, working on learning iconography, and for my family, which is my primary "work".
 
I currently study under the school Xenia Pokrovsky (although I was, unfortunately, unable to go in 2008 due to other issues that were pressing.)  Her teaching has had a profound effect on my work, and I look forward to posting new examples of my work in her style in the future.  You can take a virtual tour of a gallery of her icons here. Prior to finding Xenia, I took several seminars with Vladislav Andrejev of the Prosopon School of Iconology.  I continue to learn, and one day hope to be blessed to work for my Antiochian archdiocese, God willing.
 
I live in Texas where, apart from studying iconography, I am a wife, mother, sometime-writer of fiction and nonfiction;  and slave to two Irish terriers, four parakeets,  and two bearded dragons.  I love to cook, and enjoy time in the outdoors fishing, hunting, shooting, and hiking.  I enjoy  good fantasy fiction and mystery stories, and movies that make me laugh.