Saturdays, December 5, 12 and 19, 2015
12:00 to 4:00 PM
$150, plus $27 for materials. Limited to 8 participants. Reservations required. Contact the instructor, Susan Kelly vonMedicus, at eikon68@aol.com for more information and to register.
Students will learn calligraphy of the Irish insular uncial script and make four pages based on the Cathach of St. Columba. This psalter from the Golden Age of Irish manuscript illumination is the oldest surviving manuscript in Ireland and the second oldest Latin psalter in the world, dated before 561 AD. Each page will use one of the decorated initials and diminuendo format of this manuscript and include the text of a psalm prophesy of the Nativity. Class will include lecture and practice. No previous artistic experience is necessary. Students should be prepared to spend some hours between classes practicing the script.
Susan Kelly vonMedicus was born in Philadelphia to the fabled Kelly clan, a devout Irish-Catholic family. Her parents, John B. (Jack) Kelly, Jr. and Mary Freeman, were both Olympic athletes. Her aunt, movie star Grace Kelly, married Prince Ranier III of Monaco to become Grace, Princess of Monaco. Susan has recently completed an icon as a gift for the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas in Monaco, a commission from her cousin Prince Albert II to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the archdiocese of Monaco.
Ms. Kelly vonMedicus was educated at the following institutions: Mater Misericordiae Academy; The Baldwin School; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; and The Prosopon School of Iconology. From January through April of 2013 she is an artist-in-residence at the Burren College of Art on the west coast of Ireland, just a few miles down the coast from Westport, County, Mayo, where the Kelly family emigrated from in the late 19th century. The mother of three sons, Susan lives and works in the Philadelphia area, creating artwork and keeping a garden, chickens and bees.