My beloved people of St. John, it is an immense privilege to be working to adorn the Atrium Classrooms with large wall iconographic wall murals in our Parish House building. The atrium environment is a holy place – a true extension of the Liturgy – prepared specifically in age-appropriate ways for children to encounter God, through His Church, on their own level.
I have been attending our parish since 1999, and cannot estimate the abundance of blessings that have been given me from God's hand through this church. Two other immense sources of salvation and joy in my life are children (my own and others’), and the art of iconography. In making this proposal to you, I experience a convergence of these blessings in my life.
Our parish uses the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) model of religious education for children. In 2011 I attended Level One catechist training as an informal pupil, when my son Cub was just beginning to crawl. In the years since, CGS has been foundational in my parenting, and in my personal faith. CGS is a Montessori-inspired program, and my contact with CGS was instrumental in the choice of school to send my children to a Montessori elementary school (they have been attending Magnolia Montessori for All since 2014, a free charter school in Austin).
In 2009 I began formal training as an iconographer with Subdeacon Vladimir Grygorenko of Dallas, and in 2019 I completed the 3-year Icon Painting Course offered by the Prince's Foundation School of Traditional Arts in the UK under the tutelage of Aidan Hart, who to my knowledge, is the best teacher of iconography in the English-speaking world. You can read a review I wrote of that program here: https://orthodoxartsjournal.org/interview-with-iconographer-baker-galloway/
I now work full-time as an iconographer and liturgical designer taking commissions from churches, monasteries, and families.
Our Program
Under the leadership of Fr. Aidan, the CGS catechists and many other members of our parish have long dreamed of creating physical Atrium Classrooms that fully express their liturgical reality. In this sense, we want each Atrium to as closely resemble the Nave of a Temple as possible. We may one day have the ability to express this reality architecturally. In the meantime we have already begun to express it through various child-sized hands-on liturgical works, and through commissioning small altar tables to match our actual altar table. We now wish to further this expression by adorning the walls with iconography.
I will be giving more updates soon. Please stay tuned and feel free to reach out with any questions.
I ask your prayers,
Baker