BIG SIMON ICONOGRAPHER

Posted on Apr 12, 2007

Big Simon knew he had a creative talent from early teen years. He wanted to paint and to play the guitar. His parents discouraged him he was wasting his time. It was more important that he work on the family farm. He worked for two years for a neighbor to make enough money to buy a guitar. His father smashed the guitar. A white settler gave him a box of many kinds of artist paints. Big Simon’s father threw the paints into a fire to destroy them. Big Simon is the father of seven children and lives with his wife and family on a farm not far from Samaria Maternity Home and Clinic.

I met Big Simon last year when he brought some of his paintings of Kenyan wildlife to the clinic to see if we would be interested in buying. His wife had had a difficult labor and delivery with the seventh child having to be transported to Nyeri for delivery after being stabilized with treatment by the staff at SMHC. Our purchase of his paintings paid his debt to the clinic. He usually paints wild animals with Mt Kenya in the background or scenes from the Old Testament. I brought the painting as a gift to Richard (my dear husband) who is very interested in art and artists.

Currently Richard is collecting icons. He thought of sending Big Simon as book on how to paint icons to see if he would be interested in trying his hand at this ancient process. The Inghams took the book, paints and supplies to Big Simon last December. When I visited Ndathi in March Big Simon has chosen to paint the icon that you see of Jesus Christ Pancrator. I am amazed at Big Simon’s talent and plan to send more supplies to him in June with Alig Carroll and Eleanor Campbell. Big Simon asked specifically for wood carving tools so that he can actually carve the wood as seen in some of the pictures of icons in the book. In addition to just the beauty of the icon, Big Simon cried as he told me how much he appreciated the opportunity and the supplies to paint the icons. His Mother was so overwhelmed that she told him that she is so proud of his talent and apologized for discouraging him. Big Simon is a spiritual man who thanks God for his talent he has and is humbled to think that he can paint icons, in the tradition of so many iconographers throughout history.