SUBATOMIC ICONOGRAPHER SERIES
This is the 4th and last post in the series “Imagination, Expression, Icon: Reclaiming the Internal Prototype”: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. There’s a great peace that comes from that.Christ the Geometer. It takes the ego out,” he said of his new artistic work.Ībove all, life at the abbey hilltop for Brother André and his fellow monks revolves around the tolling of the bells for prayer: “It makes it simple to be in the moment. I’m using the geometry, the colors and techniques that had been established in a canon hundreds of years ago. He’s also the curator of the abbey museum and is tasked to care for the bell tower. He’s also influenced by the French Nabis movement, including Maurice Denis who, as a Catholic painter, felt it “necessary to celebrate all the miracles of Christianity” in his work.īetween praying five times a day with his fellow monks and fulfilling other duties, Brother André manages to devote only 20 minutes a day to painting religious art and writing icons. “The Symbolists tried to paint grace as if it was something tangible and not just something unseen,” he said. What happens as a result is really quite astounding, as you’ve seen with Brother André.”Īs an artist, Brother André draws much inspiration from the Symbolist movement. One of Brother André’s instructors, Kathy Sievers, has watched Brother André’s growth as an iconographer over the years: “As an iconographer, you take all your skills and lay them at the service of the Church and the Tradition. They can be viewed on the Mount Angel Abbey website ( ), along with his religious paintings. The icons include the Mother of Perpetual Help and Sts. He writes icons and paints religious art for the abbey, as well as for churches and individuals.
Today, he’s the abbey’s junior iconographer. There’s a self-emptying that’s necessary, which is a great experience as well, because it crosses over into my formation as a monk,” he said. “I basically had to let go of everything I knew about drawing and painting. “He’s a good monk, very hardworking and very faithful,” Father Recker remarked.Įarly on in his monastic formation, Brother André began taking icon-writing courses at the Iconographic Arts Institute in Mount Angel, Ore., upon the abbot’s advice. Last September, when now-Brother André made his final vows, he knew he was where he was supposed to be: “There was a great sense of relief after I made my vows, just being able to relax and to try to be the best monk I can be each day.” Today, he’s as clean-cut as everybody else at the monastery, save for the tattoos that had to stay, mainly for practical reasons. His application to the monastery simply authenticated his desire for God and his ability to enter and live in a monastic context,” Father Recker said.
“He was well on his way by the time he came here. Riding his BMW motorcycle, the leather-clad Love cut a novel figure in a community of clean-cut monks and seminarians with his pierced ears, dreadlocks and tattoos.
SUBATOMIC ICONOGRAPHER SKIN
“Hey, I’m just one of the monks here, nothing special,” he says in frustration over being singled out for something skin deep. He’s now Brother André Love, named after St. Love made his final profession as a Benedictine monk at Mount Angel Abbey in Saint Benedict, Ore., last September, after five years of monastic formation. “‘Who’s this monk that has the tattoos? What’s his story?’ people ask,” Benedictine Father Odo Recker, Mount Angel Abbey’s vocations director, remarked. Tattoo artist Bobby Love had no clue he would some day become a Benedictine monk and an iconographer.
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