“You have to commit to doing what it takes.” In Ballard’s case, now, “the fruits are there for all to see.” Angels are depicted playing an ancient form of violin and a harp at Mary’s coronation in heaven. “One of the greatest challenges of the process” is keeping heart while working on a complex, time-consuming piece, said Turner. He commended Ballard for the innovative way she solved some visual challenges some “gems” in the crowns of the angels are a depression in the gold with a carefully-placed drop of ink inside. “Particularly the gold work is very masterful.” “You can see the care and attention that went into the creation of this piece. He dropped in to see the Coronation and offer a second set of eyes countless times in the three years she was steadfastly working on it. Iconographer Frank Turner has a studio down the hallway from Ballard’s. It doesn’t happen all the time, but this is what you strive for and what musicians strive for.” It’s a two-way street: God can come down to you through it. “It’s a vehicle, sacred art, through which you can travel into this world and God can also. It will remain, you just have to look at it ,” she said. You don’t know how it’s done but when you get there, you know you’re there. You listen to it and then you are taken off into this other world. She would pray and listen to sacred music or work in silence on the Coronation of the Virgin, and hopes viewers also have a meaningful, spiritual experience when they encounter it. Patricia Ballard working on the icon in her studio in 2017. “You have to be very disciplined,” said Ballard, a trained artist who produced secular works until she became a sacred artist in 1999. Perhaps the most complex part was Our Lady’s veil, which covers a large part of the icon and had to be done perfectly on the first attempt, otherwise Ballard might have had to recreate large sections of Mary’s face. Every paint colour was mixed with precision. Particularly challenging sections were the precise lines and folds of fabric, the complex tapestry in the background, and the patterns on Mary’s crown, created by adding many layers of material, then scraping away sections of gold leaf to reveal the paint beneath.
“This is the most complex piece I’ve ever done, and the most challenging,” said Ballard.
#Patricia cornell iconographer skin#
It took her three years and two months to complete the project using traditional tools like egg tempera paint, rabbit skin glue, and gold leaf. Michael Miller, CSB, has called it a masterpiece, while Ballard calls it a spiritual journey. Her icon differs slightly from the original, the most notable difference at first glance being its size (it is much larger at 33.5 inches by 55 inches), Jesus’ cloak changed from black to a deep blue, and the Swarovski crystals shining brightly in Mary’s crown.Īrchbishop J. These images of Mary “became common as part of a general increase in devotion to Mary in the early Gothic period and continues today,” she said. Mary’s coronation was a c ommon subject for Ital ian artists in the 13 th to 15 th centuries, said Ballard. Watching are seven archangels and four angels playing period musical instruments. The icon is a larger version of an original work by 14 th- century Italian artist Giacomo di Mino and depicts Jesus placing a crown on the head of Mary, his mother. Her latest piece, the Coronation of the Virgin, was installed in the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s Chapel of the Annunciation just before the feast of the Queenship of Mary Aug. It’s through the material that you are carried to this other world.” “You’re working through paint and wood and gold. Each person in his or her own way experiences something through it,” she said. “This is the goal: to carry the individual into the realm of the divine for the purposes of understanding, knowing, being close to God. She hopes those viewing her art also get the sense there’s more to life than the physical. “ I don’t have internet here, usually I don’t have my cellphone on, and I’m just in this space and this world where I’m wanting to communicate with God, and I want God to help me or the angels and the saints to help me work the piece.” With the music of 11 th- century nun and composer Hildegard von Bingen playing in the background, Ballard diligently pores over her work in a small studio in Port Moody, B.C., a sacred artist on a mission to connect herself and others with the divine. “I would ask God, and ask the angels,” she said. When iconographer Patricia Ballard is stuck on a challenging pattern or discouraged by a mistaken stroke of the brush, she looks to heaven for help.
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