In 1996, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts awarded him its Painting Fellowship, which he received for a second time in 2004.Īn apprenticeship grant from the CT Traditional Arts program allowed him to study for 15 years under noted Russian Orthodox icon painter Ksenia Pokrovsky, with whom he taught workshops nationally. Originally from Bristol CT, Marek graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.Īn unexpected commission began his three decades studying historical Byzantine iconography. Anthony Messenger, Catholic Digest, Our Sunday Visitor, and New York Times.Marek Czarnecki is an artist, iconographer, restorer and community scholar for Connecticut’s Polish-American Community. Articles on his work have appeared in the Hartford Courant, St. He has won a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Painting Fellowship in 19, the 1998 American Council for Polish Culture Award, the 2006 Polish American Historical Association Outstanding Achievement Award, and a Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant to teach an advanced student.
He continues to teach and write icons out of his studio in Meriden, Connecticut. Marek helped edit the book, "Hidden and Triumphant: The Struggle to Save Russian Iconography in Twentieth Century Russia" (Paraclete Press, 2010). Marek is also a skilled restoration artist, working with statues from churches across the country, and he creates ornaments and installations to mark festivals and holy seasons in his parish church of St. This icon was widely distributed more than a million copies were printed, reproduced, and used in dioceses as distant as London, Stockholm, Singapore, and Sydney. His icon of "Christ the Eternal High Priest", originally written for a seminary chapel, gained him international attention when it was chosen by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops as the image to represent "The Year of the Priest". Thomas More Chapel at Yale University, and Sean Cardinal O'Malley. Marek’s icons can be found in in the homes and chapels of individuals, as well as churches across the country, including the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield, Illinois, the Franciscan University of Steubenville, St. The icon is then varnished with copal resin. Painted with egg tempera mixed with natural earth and mineral pigments, the halos and backgrounds are gilded with 22 karat gold. Following established tradition, Marek’s icons are made with natural materials the foundation is linen glued to a wood panel and primed with a marble-based gesso.
Tikhon's Seminary in South Canaan, Pennsylvania.
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He has translated her teachings into an English language technical manual for iconographers, and taught workshops with her at several national sites, including St. Icons carry a patrimony of both theology and art, conveying essential dogmatic and biographical information and embodying the presence of the holy ones depicted.Īfter studying with several iconography teachers, Marek began a life-long apprenticeship with master iconographer Ksenia Pokrovskaya in 1999. Iconography is a fundamental liturgical art form that provides authentic, meaningful and dignified images which exemplify the larger consciousness of the Christian Church. Leaving behind a contemporary art education, the icon became his sole interest as an artist. It was appropriate for this first generation Polish-American that his first icon would be of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Black Madonna of Poland. Stanislaus Kostka in Bristol, Connecticut. Biography Marek Czarnecki began writing icons in 1990 for his home parish of St.