Holy Icon

"Argonaut California Gold Mine 1922", acrylic on canvas, Bishop Maxim, 2022

This moving painting presents two different worlds above the indifferent society where "life goes on" under the indifference of everyone who deals with indifference regarding the tragic event. Below is the world of the mine where we see workers performing various collaborations while they search for the lost persons in the treacherous darkness where we humans search to find coal, gold, or silver. At the same time, we know it is fate some will be lost in the earth's bowels.

But our feeling is put to a terrible test as our gaze falls on the tragic MOTHER of the lost miner and on the dazzling eyes of the praying priest who look anxiously for something to be seen, or maybe with disappointment. From a painting point of view, the masterpiece is the eyes of the priest and the face, hair, wrinkles, and redness of the face of the poor mother. Picasso has said that the painting is not about the historical representation of an important event but--the expression. It is the expression of the uniqueness of the face who experiences the event that the painter expresses.

The priest and the mother are presented as if they are on the edge of the abyss where the hero perished. Mother’s love sees him as unique and unrepeatable, whose death leaves behind an unfilled void. Her life no longer has any meaning; she would rather die with him than live without him. The Virgin on Good Friday shouts bitterly, “where did you go, Son?” And Saint Porphyrios saves us from despair with his resurrecting words: “As soon as my eyes close on earth, they will automatically open in heaven.” The lost miner is now embraced with personal love, which is crowned with thorns.