The Call of Sacred Art: Interview with Iconographer Elizabeth Zelasko

"Whether I am creating a traditional icon, a Roman representation of the saints, or a portrait for a client, prayer is at the core of it all. I just want to show people the beauty of God."

We caught up with Elizabeth Zelasko after years of admiring (and purchasing) her beautiful work. She joined us to talk about sacred art and the true call not just of the artist, but also of art patrons.

TOH: How did you get started as a sacred artist? 

Zelasko: I have been an artist my whole life. My mom is a painter and so it was something that was always encouraged in my home. I was in special art classes in grade school, which was an incredible thing for a public school to offer at the time. God blessed me with true art teachers during my academic years. These women were artists themselves and they loved teaching.

Going to art school was the only aspiration I had in high school, and growing up in New Jersey made it easy to fix my eyes on New York City. I was accepted into the School of Visual Arts, and spent two years there. After two years, I was sorely disappointed in the modern methodology of art school. It felt more like an expensive

playground where I was expected to experiment, rather than a place of true instruction. I knew there were approaches to painting figures and landscapes, formulas to follow, knowledge of how it had been done before, and I wasn’t finding it there. So I left.

Days later, I went to visit family who were living in Wisconsin, and one evening I went to pray in the Holy Cross Seminary Chapel. It was there that I received what I can only describe as a literal calling to become a sacred artist. There was an icon of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which captivated me – not because it was painted so well, but because I felt Christ there.

I prayed for a long time, and that night I could barely sleep. I was filled with a fire to learn how to paint the way that icon was painted. I knew that there must be a method, so when I got home, I searched the internet for an iconography school and within minutes I was on the phone with the woman who would be my teacher. When I first walked into the Prosopon School of Iconology I felt at home. There were specific instructions, guides to follow, a deep theology to meditate on, and the beauty of Christ and his saints to share with the world. I was a hooked.

TOH: What do you think is unique about your approach to conveying the sacred? 

Zelasko: My style has sprung from a deep love for modern art (the good kind!), the art of the Renaissance, and the art of the eastern Catholic churches. Whether I am creating a traditional icon, a Roman representation of the saints, or a portrait for a client, prayer is at the core of it all. I just want to show people the beauty of God. When we approach a sacred work of art, we should feel the presence of that holy person; it should be an encounter! My approach is to create a space for that encounter to happen.

TOH: What are some of your favorite styles of art and subjects?

Zelasko: I have been fascinated with every kind of art since I was in grade school. From Cycladic to Modern, studying art history is to study the heart of man outside of the wars he has fought. While I do not have a favorite per se, I usually find myself drawn to the Impressionist painters (perhaps simply because I find it hard to paint that freely!). There is a certain level of electricity that comes off of those paintings, and I feel like a moth drawn to light. My happy place would be sitting right in front of a Mary Cassatt portrait, marveling at the depth of the skin tones.

TOH: Sacred art is making a comeback after decades of mediocrity, including what a lot of us remember as the felt-banner era. What do you think is behind this and how do you see your own work contributing to this focus on excellence?

Zelasko: Please Jesus, I want nothing more in this life than to be part of a movement that replaces felt-banners! Although I want to believe that came from a good place, I think the Church has had some really bad PR over the last fifty years. Someone once explained history to me as a tennis match, and I found this analogy very helpful: we make decisions based on what we have been served, and we usually like our decisions to go the opposite direction. Stated again, I think this return to traditional beauty is a direct response to the mediocrity our generation was given. We want our sacredness, our chant, our ornate churches – we want things that glorify God and not ourselves! We have such a short time to grow and offer our excellence for the body of Christ - let’s get to work.

TOH: A lot of sacred art is very expensive but you have made yours more widely available through prints. Tell us about this decision and what has been the response to it?

Zelasko: Good art is expensive and should be. I support artists advocating for just pay for themselves – it’s a function of their specialized skills and the hours logged. Just in the last decade, e-commerce has fundamentally altered our expectations for delivery. Creating something that will become an heirloom, passed down through generations, takes time. We have forgotten about living life for the people that will come after us. That $350 that we spend every couple of weeks at Costco dies with us. It is a powerful thing to invest in good art. Imagine a piece that will tell your great grandchildren about your faith in God, that tells how you found something worth glorifying with your money!

Having said all of that, I actually struggled at first with the decision to sell affordable prints. While they’re close to the original, prints cannot hold a candle to the feeling of being in front of the original creation. In the end, I wanted to offer work to a wider audience, and it was the right choice. The goal is to inspire people to pray in their homes, to teach their children about our faith. It was a print of Our Lady of Guadalupe, hung in the hall of my childhood home, that was the starting point of my own conversion story. I want that for other people and their families.

TOH: Are there any specific projects you dream of doing? 

Zelasko: Work from churches that beautifies the sanctuary lights me up. Knowing that my work literally makes the physical space around the Eucharist beautiful is something that makes me feel like I can die happy.

In the eastern rite, there’s a part of the Divine Liturgy where the priest prays for “the founders and benefactors of this holy church” – as long as that building stands, as long as those icons are in the sanctuary, those people will be praying for me long after I’m gone! They won’t know my name - they don’t need to – but the physical space they’re praying in is one that glorifies and points to the beauty of God, and I got to contribute to that! That is an incredibly humbling thing to think about.

Last year I got the opportunity to provide the art for a new chapel in Virginia, and this year I am starting work for two churches in Wisconsin. That’s a dream project right there.

To find more of Elizabeth’s incredible work, go here to her website.