Russia

What is the value in abstract art?

This week I took my 7th and 8th grade art students to visit the Modern art museum in Fort Worth. There were a lot of comments such as:...

My favorite Russian Murderer

My husband and I have just finished a refreshing three-day class at the Dallas Institute discussing Gogol’s Dead Souls, Melville’s...

Grandmother

Growing up my I thought of my grandmother as grouchy and unpleasant. I never looked forward to visiting her and she, in turn, seemed...

Superheroes & the Triumph of Orthodoxy

The first time I remember seeing an icon was in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. I was taking a class in Israel my sophomore year...

Will "Beauty save the world"?

I have often heard or seen Dostoevsky quoted, “Beauty will save the world.” It is attributed to him as if it were his personal...

the iconography of faerytales

With the collapse of Imperial Russia and the rise of the Bolsheviks in 1917, the art & prayer of icon painting was suppressed....

the transformative power of story

Various influences were dropped into my path that lead me into the Catholic Church, one of the most prominent being the work of Fyodor...

doing shots for the saints

The first time I met Babushka, my friend Ira’s 76 year old grandmother, she appeared as a tiny speck in a row boat across the water. As...

creating a sacred space in the home

When I was living in St. Petersburg, I rented a small, airy room in a sunny, high-ceilinged apartment on the corner of Dostoevsky Street...