Iconic work

Paintings reveal God’s world in Pittsburgh churches

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When Olga Foight moved from Ukraine to the U.S. in 2001, she didn’t know that Orthodox iconography would become her life mission.

“I’m so happy that America helped me to discover this God’s gift,” Mrs. Foight said recently as she sat in the sanctuary of Holy Assumption of St. Mary Orthodox Church on the South Side.

To mark this year’s 100th anniversary of the church, she has created six paintings featuring icons that now adorn its sanctuary walls. Among those are the “Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” and the “Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” They immediately catch the attention of visitors with their pure colors and elegant brush strokes.

Mrs. Foight, of Ross, however, distances herself from her work: The icons, she said, “are never mine; they belong to the church and to God.”

She has always considered herself an artist and shared her career hopes to her mom when she was a child. She graduated from Donetsk Professional College of Art and Design and enrolled in South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University in the port city of Odessa. Her brother and other relatives still live in her native city of Donetsk in war-torn eastern Ukraine.

Every time Mrs. Foight saw a new icon in the church she attended, she wondered who made them.

“When I was in school [during Soviet times], we studied icons, but it was considered as ‘arts and crafts,’ sort of low art,” she says, adding that despite this she was always interested in symbols and signs. “All the knowledge I have accumulated back at home together with my aspirations here transformed into what I’m doing now — icons.”

Mrs. Foight, however, says that it’s not she who makes the icons, but icons make her.

Iconography has been traditionally seen as a liturgical art as it has its strict guidelines (for example, there are rules on the height and arrangement of the saints), but the craft also allows some freedom of expression. It’s not personal art, Mrs. Foight says, it’s about expressing the idea of the church.

When Mrs. Foight moved to Pittsburgh upon her arrival in the U.S., she taught abstractionism and painting classes at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

She painted her first icon — “Christ Pantocrator (The Ruler Over All)” — in 2002 in Pittsburgh and gave it to her mother-in-law. “It was a turning point in my career. I thought what I have been doing my whole life? It felt as something I always wanted to do, I found it.”

Before each project, she learns as much as she can about the saint. Some icons take longer than others. Each of the six paintings at Assumption of St. Mary Church took her about a month to complete. But it’s never about forcing things, she explains.

“Once I had to paint a Trinity icon for a wedding and I couldn’t do it at all,” Mrs. Foight said. “I prayed, and I tried to start it many times until I decided to call the woman who ordered it from me and found out that the wedding plans fell apart.”

She also prays before painting to keep everything in focus. “It helps to make everything right: once your mind starts wandering you can see that the line went wrong.”

She often lights a candle and listens to liturgical music or gospels to be inspired. Since 2005, she has offered annual icon painting workshops at the Assumption church. The two-hour classes are available for adults and children, the youngest attendant so far has been 7. “I like to see how children paint icons, they do it with an open heart and I learn a lot from them,” Mrs. Foight says.

The students receive a wooden primed board, drawing, brushes, gold leaves and paint she prepares. They do the gilding with real 23 or 24 karat gold. Those who miss her annual workshop can arrange private lessons.

The next class is scheduled for October. Details are available at http://olgafoighticonography.com/ classes. “I’m especially happy that young people show up,” she says, adding that she had American, Greek, Russian and Ukrainian students during the classes.

For some of them, it was a life-changing experience. One of her students became a monk in Athens after attending her classes. To Mrs. Foight, it’s all about the power of the icons. But to make them work one should always finish what was started.

“Once you start writing the icon, you always need to finish. It’s like a conversation with a saint, it can’t go unanswered.”