Dorothy Thayne began writing icons in 1994 after studying with a master iconographer. Her icons can be seen at St. Thomas More Church in Decatur, Georgia and at Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. Thayne graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. She lives in Lancaster, PA with her husband and three children.
An icon is a work of art painted in a prayerful manner using symbolic visual language and images that originate in early Church tradition. A canon of depiction ensures that the meaning of the originals is not altered by the individual iconographer.
Subtle artistic nuances, however, create styles that differentiate icons of one culture or time period from another. Icons are often called ‘windows to heaven,’ mystical intermediaries between the earthly and heavenly realms. As sacred objects blessed by the Church, icons are aids to prayer.