The Saint Vincent Gristmill will host an opening for an exhibit on Friday, November 22, 2013 from 6-8 p.m. featuring the works of Michael Goltz, whose specialty is church iconography. Along with an opportunity for attendees to view Goltz’s craft, there will also be a lecture on iconography given by Goltz at 7 p.m. The exhibit will run through December 7. The public is invited to attend.

An alumnus of Saint Vincent Seminary and the University of Toledo, Goltz, of Port Vue, has been serving the church as an iconographer for 17 years. His work has been exhibited at biannual Brotherhood of Orthodox Clergy of Greater Pittsburgh Icon festivals from 2000-2012 and the 2003 and 2004 Orthodox Cultural event held by the Inter-Orthodox Council of Greater Cleveland. One of his works, the Icon of the Nativity of Christ was on the cover of WORD Magazine’s December 2004 issue. His icon of the Martyrdom of Saint Ignatius of Antioch was on the cover of the book The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers. His essays on the meaning of icons and “Why Orthodox Churches are Full of Icons” were published in WORD Magazine’s December 2000 and January 2006 issues, respectively. Aside from these publications, Goltz’s work is featured in several churches across the United States. He taught a college course on iconography at Lorain County Community College in 2005 and has given presentations to groups of all sizes. For the past six years he has taught his wife, Lori, iconography and she has become quite skilled in her own right.

With the blessing of his Bishop Melchisedek (Pleska) of Pittsburgh, Bishop Thomas (Joseph) of Oakland-Charleston and Bishop John (Inge) of Worcester, MA, Goltz seeks to combine artistic skill with traditional iconographic technique in all aspects of his work. He works in acrylic gouache as well as pigment with acrylic glaze in sizes ranging from 9 by 12 inches to church-sized icons and enjoys the challenge of painting icons of rare and hard to find saints. Among these rare saint icons he has painted are: The Saints of Africa (37 saints plus Christ), Saint John the Dwarf, Saint Maximus the Hut Burner, Saint Andrew Fool for Christ, Saint Alexander Schmorell of the White Rose, the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, and Saint Jose Curpertino.