The Art of Illumination

Illumination film and demonstration

Feb. 9
Helen DeVitt Jones Auditorium and Sculpture Court
11 a.m. - film: The Illuminator
Noon - Artist talk - A Brief History of Illuminated Manuscripts
1 p.m. - Illuminator demonstration

The exhibition, Pre-Modern Bibles: From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, contains a variety of bibles with colorful illuminations.

An illuminated manuscript is one in which the text is supplemented with decorations such as initials, borders and miniature illustrations.

As part of the exhibition, the Museum presents a film and illumination demonstration Feb. 9 in the Helen DeVitt Jones Auditorium and Sculpture Court.

The film, The Illuminator, will be shown at 11 a.m. The film, produced by the BBC in 2005, it is about the St. John's Bible that was commissioned by St. John's Abbey in Minnesota. Donald Jackson, who is a professional calligrapher and illuminator in England created the entire manuscript and all paintings for the Bible entirely by hand. He has been a long-time scribe to Queen Elizabeth. Jackson used egg yolks, gold, silver and platinum in the illuminations; goose quills and hand-ground ink on carefully selected calf-skin vellum to create the books. the imagery he uses is inspired by diverse sources such as a Navajo basket pattern and images from the Hubble telescope.

At 1 p.m. professional artists Maggie Gillikin and Leslie Winakur of San Antonio will demonstrate the art form of illumination.

Winakur is a retired pediatrician. Her art interested is in calligraphy watercolor and bookbinding. She has created two books, one done of paper and vellum, using watercolor for lettering and using traditional gilding techniques on the vellum, in a rather non-traditional binding. The second book is done on paper, using Sumi ink and modern tools that best express the emotion of the words, but all in a traditional binding.

Gillkin spent her early life in Japan and her teen years in Paris. She owned and operated a puppet theater company for 25 years. It was during that time, she began exploring watercolor painting and became fascinated with artists' books and calligraphy. She is a signature member of the Southwestern Watercolor Society. She has produced two books both combining calligraphy text and watercolor images.