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24 Hamel first discovered icons during a high school art class. At age 16, her initial impression was that they were flat, primitive, dark and strange, but she says, “they left a profound impact on me anyway.” She encountered the art form again during her studies at MSU. “I began to really feel drawn to icons more during those college years,” said Hamel. “I certainly had a better appreciation for them after studying their history. There was something compelling about them, but still I hadn’t fully fallen in love with them.” That moment came during a visit to The Field Museum in Chicago with her husband and children in 1996 to see an exhibit of icons from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. “I have found with iconography that one is really pursued by icons, not the other way around,” said Hamel. “I think that they sort of capture you.” In the years after that first retreat in 1997, Hamel continued to attend retreats given by Rev. Pearson. In 1999 at Hamel’s invitation and in conjunction with sponsoring organizations - the Dominican Center at Marywood and later the Diocese of Grand Rapids - Rev. Pearson began to come to Grand Rapids once a year, during the summer, to conduct icon painting retreats. At one point, Hamel recalls Peter telling her that she really should teach. “I felt like I had sort of received a blessing when he told me that,” she remembers. Hamel began teaching iconography soon after that and led her first retreat in 2003. Her favorite iconographers are Theophanes the Greek and Andrei Rublev who lived during the 13th and 14th centuries and painted in and around the Novgorod area of Russia. Both are considered to be among the greatest iconographers who ever lived (Source: Wikipedia). In endeavoring to continue to improve as an iconographer and to be able to share even more with her students, Hamel has studied with Xenia Prokovsky – a Russian iconographer who immigrated to the U.S. from Moscow in the early 1990s and French iconographer George Drobot. A distinguished iconographer in her
Diane Hamel
With iconography I’m introduced to these saints in a way that gives me hope and helps me move forward into a deepening relationship with God.” own right, Hamel has created icons for exhibit around the United States and for private collections, churches, and other institutions, including the Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Grand Rapids. Hamel says that the spirituality and faith of her students always leaves her feeling humbled and enriched. As she meets with catechumens and candidates in her work at the parish and continues to paint and share iconography with others, Hamel reflects on and imparts to those she meets what she feels is one of
the most beautiful gifts of Catholicism – the communion of saints. “To me it was like opening a treasure trove and finding treasure after treasure,” Hamel said. “It dawned on me when I was a young mom that the communion of saints provides for us a hope that we’re all called to be holy and we do it in very ordinary human ways. With iconography I’m introduced to these saints in a way that gives me hope and helps me move forward into a deepening relationship with God.”
To learn more about icon retreats led by Diane Hamel, you may contact her at 616.987.6439 or by email, rciaham@wmis.net.