Saturday, July 25, 2009

Ikonostasis

My new blog Ikonostasis has gone public, but it is far from finished.
I'd intended not to make it public till I had all 700 or more ikons loaded into it, but I can't wait, and I see that it's going to take me a while getting them all loaded. It's humbling for me to know that even after spending so many man days on this project, I still have so little to show for it. Also, it's good for patience, in me and others.

This is not the effort of a learned ikonographer or ikon collector.
In reality I possess few actual ikons, and I'm not addicted to them either. It's just that I have collected for over 20 years the Sunday bulletins at my church, and most of them have ikons printed on the cover. All the ikons that are roughly the same size come from that collection, to which I have added a few others I have found on the internet or actually own and have scanned.

My reason for collecting these ikons has changed over the years.
At first, I was collecting them so I could make my own ikons and give them away. Then, I thought I was collecting them to send away to overseas new Orthodox believers. Neither of these things happened. Next, I decided, now that I have a scanner, I'd scan them all and make them available on a CD. But wait, along came the internet, and now I can just post them there, but I didn't know how. Finally, I realized I could at least make them available for downloading by blogging them. Voilà! That's where the project came down to earth.

I realize the collection will be very incomplete, and I have no expectations of doing anything more than I originally decided, that is, just get them online, so others can use them. As I get older, I am less and less fascinated with things or ambitious to do projects of this sort, but if the work is mostly done, I may as well finish it.
May anyone who finds my unworthy blog, either this one or any other, forgive me for the poor quality of my work. My task has always been to try to draw your attention to others more worthy than myself, and of course ultimately to Christ, who alone is Worthy.
To Him be glory now and ever.

3 comments:

Maria said...

Wow! Wonderful. Thank you!

Unknown said...

That is pretty cool... I will forward it around.

Ρωμανός ~ Romanós said...

I am still working on it day by day till all the scanned ikons are online. But it really is a very humble and amateurish effort. Still, perhaps it will help somebody.