A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Svetlana Meritt

Svetlana Meritt is a modern-day pilgrim. Twelve years ago, she left her career as a journalist, and with her late husband and mentor, Dwight Johnson, embarked on a journey of self-discovery through the continents of Europe, Africa, and Asia.

During her career as an American correspondent for a high-profile Serbian magazine – Illustrated Politics – Svetlana interviewed the Dalai Lama, Lawrence Eagleburger, Jon Voight, Laura Huxley, Yoko Ono, and Allan Ginsberg. On assignment to cover the Academy Awards, she interviewed Kevin Costner, Sophia Loren, and Giorgio Armani. She also wrote extensively about American life and society, and frequently published travel articles. She was the recipient of the Talented Young Journalist award in her native Belgrade. Svetlana has written one novel in English, Legacy of the Future (2002).

In addition to being a journalist, Svetlana is also professional photographer. Her photographs have accompanied her written articles and appeared in group and solo exhibitions in Belgrade and Santa Barbara.

Svetlana currently lives in Santa Barbara, California, and teaches at Santa Barbara City College and at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Source: Official Web-Site


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People Directory

Svetlana Rakic

A native of former Yugoslavia, Dr. Svetlana Rakic earned her master’s degree in art history from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and her doctorate in art history from Indiana University. She is the author of several books on Serbian Orthodox icons and the interrelatedness of modern art and religious thought. Most recently, she has published the book Art and Reality Now: Serbian Perspectives (New York: A. Pankovich Publishers, 2014).

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Publishing

Sailors of the Sky

A conversation with Fr. Stamatis Skliris and Fr. Marko Rupnik on contemporary Christian art

In these timely conversations led by Fr. Radovan Bigovic, many issues are introduced that enable the contemporary reader to deepen and expand his or her understanding of the role of art in the life of the Church. Here we find answers to questions on the crisis of contemporary ecclesiastical art in West and East; the impact of Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract painting on contemporary ecclesiastical painting; and a consideration of the main distrinction between iconography and secular painting. The dialogue, while resolving some doubts about the difference between iconography, religious painting, and painting in general, reconciles the requirement to obey inconographic canons with the freedom essential to artistic creativity, demonstrating that obedience to the canons is not a threat to the vitatlity of iconography. Both artists illumine the role of prayer and ascetisicm in the art of iconography. They also mention curcial differences between iconography in the Orthodox Church and in Roman Catholicism. How important thse distinctions are when exploring the relationship between contemporary theology and art! In a time when postmodern "metaphysics' revitalizes every concept, these masters still believe that, to some extent, Post-Modernism adds to the revitatiztion of Christian art, stimulating questions about "artistic inspiration" and the essential asethetic categories of Christian painting. Their exceptionally wide, yet nonetheless deep, expertise assists their not-so-everday connections between theology, ar, and modern issues concerning society: "society" taken in its broader meaning as "civilization." Finally, the entire artistic project of Stamatis and Rupnik has important ecumenical implications that aswer a genuine longing for unity in the Christian word.

The text of this 94-page soft-bound book has been translated from the Serbian by Ivana Jakovljevic, Fr. Gregory Edwards, and Andrijana Krstic. Published by Sebastian Press, Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Contemporary Christian Thought Series, number 7, First Edition, ISBN: 978-0-9719505-8-0