Mary of Three Hands
The icon received its name from an event which took place in Syria during the eighth century, at a time when the iconoclast heresy was raging. St. John Damascene, a layman and court official of the caliphate of Damascus, wrote three treatises against the said heresy, and in so doing incurred the wrath of the iconoclast emperor, Leo the Isaurian. The emperor sent a letter to the caliph along with a forged document, accusing St. John of plotting against the caliph. The latter, believing the slander, had St. John Damascus’s right hand cut off as a punishment for his supposed crime. St. John took his own severed hand and, with fervent prayer before the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, begged her for healing. His prayer was heard, and his hand was miraculously reattached, with only a fine red line remaining to attest to the miracle. In gratitude for this miracle, a silver image of the severed hand was affixed to the icon itself; thereby it became named “Of Three Hands.” …More

Woman and Wisdom.
The ‘Feminine Voice’ collection came about as my discomfort with the absence of women in iconography grew. Traditions change gradually as we ask new questions because of new insights; I worked on this collection utilizing the traditional byzantine style continually asking, “where are the women?” One scholar called the work neo-iconographic because it is mildly radical and challenges the status quo. What became obvious to me was, if we are to believe God's boundless presence is reflected in the biblical story through iconography then more women must be included.
Those godly men who mythologized the “fall” written about in Genesis have had a fundamental and profound impact on the status of women. Eve was the first woman, made from Adam’s rib. She is the feminine energy which morphed into Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, Marian and the few other women mentioned in the bible. For me they remain undeveloped prototypes for our contemporary society. Their stories and presence does …More