Barbara Martin, ARTIST

I took a class, years ago, and learned a little about painting icons. I was impressed by the reverence and respect the Russian Orthodox artist had for his images and the patience he showed in the act of painting. There were prayers and invocations at every turn. The art was intentional. This was not art for art’s sake. Nor was it, “Look at me, at my virtuosity”. No, these paintings sought to depict a higher order, an image, indeed an icon, like those venerated for centuries. They were representations of ideas that dwell deep in our ancestry, they sought to give glory to God.
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I took note. I began thinking about the icons of our day, wondering, “What do we venerate? To whom (or what) do we bend our knee?” My conclusion? We worship our own ideas, our past, our present and a future that doesn’t exist. We give praise to little other than ourselves.  i.doll.a.tre, noun, \ˈī-ˌˈdäl, ˈdȯl-ˈă- ˈtrē \ is this artist’s effort to give form to the veneration of self through assembled dolls, icon-like collages, shrines and other images of worship.