Mary and Child: The Mother of God of Tenderness
Marit Kartveit and
her husband, Magnar, an Old Testament professor in the School of
Mission and Theology, Stavanger, Norway, spent a sabbatical semester
in New Haven in the fall of 2009. While at OMSC, she painted icons
to express her Christian faith. She became a minister in the Church
of Norway in 1987. Now retired, she spends her time painting. As
she recalls, "I came to a point in life where I had worked
a lot and I had to do something else than work. I painted in my
childhood, but had forgotten everything." For six years Marit
struggled to relearn the skill of painting. This task was made more
difficult for her because Norway does not have many icon painters
with whom to study. Finally, Marit began to train with a Catholic
sister who was schooled in the Byzantine icon tradition. Later she
went to Finland to learn from a painter who was schooled in the
Russian tradition. It is the Russian tradition that influences Marit's
icon painting the most.
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