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The following article originally appeared in the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS on April 15, 1990. It was written by Terry Mattingly. It is printed with permission. For ailing artist, creating icons is an intricate labor of love Creating a Russian Orthodox icon is astonishingly intricate work. Lev Lominago uses a technique born in ancient Egypt -- painting with egg tempera and pigments made entirely from natural elements, some of which will cost $300 an ounce. First he prepares a drawing of the subject, on paper. As inspiration, Lominago consults a book containing images from the early centuries of Christendom. The face of Jesus in a Lominago icon will bear a remarkable resemblance to images created a few generations after the first Easter. Lominago uses carbon to transfer the image to a piece of wood or, with large icons, wood covered with cheesecloth. The board is covered with a mixture of white powder, glue and oil. Then he floods the background with basic colors before - working from darker pigments to light -- he builds up layers of glazes until he achieves the colors and forms he desires. The work is similar to sculpture, Lominago explained, only in reverse. "It is like an image in a mirror, and it moves closer and closer to you, layer by layer . . . The goal is for the image to appear as if God breathed it," he said, blowing a puff of air as if to fog a glass. Iconography requires disciplines that are spiritual, as well as artistic. The final product will be judged in terms of holiness, Lominago said. "If you are going to paint God's face, or the face of the Mother of God, and you really believe, then it is all very difficult. It is more than art," he said. "For the Orthodox believer, such as myself, it becomes an awesome responsibility . . . It requires a special kind of calm that comes only from God." Lominago gazed up, trying to find the right words. He struggled with three foes as he talked - disease, his desire to find English phrases for Russian thoughts, and the difficulty of expressing colors and images in words. "The Mother of God can't just be another beautiful woman with a child, in just another painting," he said. "The image has to be more than that, to be a true icon. It must be more than just a painting of another beautiful woman, only wearing some different kind of dress."
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