Kind Words
Symeon’s Artwork leads one Into A Renewed Spirit Of Reverence And Celebration.
It is my honor and my privilege to offer this testimonial of Symeon van Donkelaar’s Iconography. His style is elegant and simple and leads one to an experience of effulgence. His use of natural coloring is lustrous and gratifying. Following the traditional cannons of Iconography, he is true to the ancient traditions while offering new and notable interpretations. His Icons lead one into a renewed Spirit of reverence and celebration.
Fr. Edward J Tomasiewicz, C. M.
Retired faculty member, DePaul University
I find Symeon’s work fascinating …
I find his work fascinating as it is an exploration of the flatter and more stylized threads of iconography developed in Central and Northern Europe before the Gothic period. Lines are bold and highly calligraphic. Color is frank and contrasted like a puzzle. Clothing is abstracted towards simple geometry. The large black pupils without irises give a child-like sense to all his figures.
Jonathan Pageau
French Canadian icon carver, public speaker and YouTuber
Symeon’s iconography is a hymn of praise.
The Incarnation calls us to a deep regard for all creatures, the beauty of flora and fauna, indeed, the earth under our feet. The earth we walk on is a reliquary and the minerals and colours of each particular place a sacred treasure. Symeon’s artwork, drawing as it does on the local palette of the land, calls each of us to a deeper regard for our fragile world, and deeper attention to the Holy Spirit who “is everywhere present and fillest all things”.
David J. Goa
Founding Director, Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life, University of Alberta
Symeon’s icons are beautiful.
Symeon’s philosophy, his insistence on local colour, speaks to the incarnation: as God took on a specific body in a specific place, Symeon’s work is rooted in its particular location. His icons are distinctive and beautiful, at once otherworldly and folksy, both transcendent and intensely human. Grounded in time and place, these beautiful icons testify to God’s presence in our world, here and now.
Elissa Bjeletich
Author and podcaster