Photos by Sandy Schadewal rscj

Born three months prematurely in 1921, I was immediately baptized and placed in one of the first incubators at S. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco. When I was two our family went to Europe for a vacation, which, due to circumstances, lengthened into eleven years. These were extremely happy for me. Though frail in health, when well, I was full of energy and joy at being alive. I started school in France, made my First Holy Communion in Switzerland, and was confirmed in Spain. We vacationed along the Atlantic coast, the Italian lakes, the French Riviera, the Baltic islands, and once in southern England.

I learned art at school along with the usual subjects and during vacations my mother encouraged us (my sister and myself) to bring along our watercolors. I always enjoyed this.  Once, when I was in the hospital in Paris, I had my ninth birthday and my mother brought me a coloring book which also had empty pages for drawing. I loved it and worked a page a day for her to see when she would come to visit me.

When I was in Madrid I started lessons in oil painting and the following summer gave my first exhibit of oil and watercolors. There were also adult friends who saw my interest and helped me along the way.

Because of the depression and the conditions in Europe at the time, we returned home to California and lived with my great aunt in Santa Cruz.  There I attended the local Catholic High School - but there were no art classes. So I continued on my own, copying figures and illustrating my homework.

By the time I started at Lone Mountain, the then San Francisco College for Women, I had attended seven different schools in four different countries and spoke French, Spanish, Italian, German and English. It was there at lone Mountain that God was waiting for me - just a few blocks away from where I had been born. That summer, 1940, we vacationed at Lake Tahoe and on the 15th of August I received my Child of Mary's medal at Lone Mountain and left that evening for our Noviceship at Kenwood in Albany, New York.

It was not until after my final profession in Rome that I was to resume art study. I took lessons in charcoal drawing and pastels at Barat College in Illinois; architechtual engineering at the San Diego College for Women; and mostly varied art classes at Lone Mountian. Since I only studied during the summers, I only received my BA in 1955 with a major in art.

I had taught some art in our grammar and high schools and a watercolor class at San Diego. But it was at Lone Mountain that I really became an art professor and taught art full time. These were extremely happy years for me. I was also sacristan in our new chapel and with the art classes I felt happy and fulfilled. This went on until i returned to Broadway. When Vatican II came along, I went into nursing school and received my license. I then nursed full time at San Diego, Kenwood, and, finally, Oakwood when it opened in 1971. It was there that I started "Creative Arts" as a means of keeping our sisters occupied in a productive way. But all of this was too much for me and I had to give it up. So for a year I studied wood carving in Madrid, metal relief work in Paris and took a post graduate art course at Gonzaga University in Eugene, Oregon - all with the intention of opening a studio. However, this did not materialize due to local restrictions. So ... this time I became Chaplain at the Community Hospital of San Mateo, while continuing to minister at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco and chauffeuring at Oakwood (the residence for retried sisters in California) on my days off.

Then, in August of 2001, I attended my first workshop in iconography with Fr. Brendan McEnerny O.P. and immediately fell in love with the work. Here was spirituality and ministry all in one. I received permission to continue and went on to study with Vladislav Andrejev, an icon Master. He teaches a revival of 14th century Russian iconography which includes the Theology of the Icon. This is the perfect blend of prayer, work, and apostolate.

Icons are sacred images drawn on non-resinous boards, which have been covered with canvas and gesso, etched and, with egg tempera applied by special methods called 'pudling' and 'floting.' Clay is used around the borders and everywhere that gold is to be applied. This is done with a long, deep breath. It represents that God made us out of clay and breathed on Adam and Adam became a living being. From this step onward, every step represents our spiritual growth until we reach eternity. In the same way, every line an every color has its meaning. If not, it does not belong in the icon. Curly hair represents wisdom; a slender nose, small mouth, ears, hands and feet symbolize control of the senses. Blue, green and lavender are considered ethereal colors. The three stars or jewels on Our Lady's cloak represent the Blessed Trinity within her - and so on. We may trace the pictures on the boards, but it is the Spirit within that guides us. We are only the instrument. That is why they are never signed.

I am always glad to give talks on iconography because the more people understand them the more they are drawn to use them for prayer - which is their only purpose - to draw them to God.

See Anne's icons in Creative Space.