Ever since The Miracle of Damascus has hit the Internet, a huge number of people have requested copies of the Icon of Our Lady of Soufanieh. This page is meant to fulfill that demand.
There are two original paintings of Our Lady of Soufanieh. The ones posted below appear to be a newer version of the icon. I'm basing this assumption on my knowledge of art history.
This version of Our Lady of Soufanieh might be the older painting. It was painted by a Bulgarian artist living in Canada. You can get obtain a free icon from them, too. You only pay postage.
No page on this website has caused more controversy than this page because I've altered the icon. To those who take issue with my work, please know that I consulted with Rick Salbato first. He encouraged me to post this page. In fact, this page is linked on the homepage of his site, Unity Publishing.
Some are offended at my alterations. Discussions were made. I came to an agreement with the webmaster of the official Our Lady of Soufanieh website, the one linked above and throughout the Miracle of Damascus video pages, that the remaining icons posted below will remain online for download. Sometimes I get carried away with Photoshop -- only because it's such a cool program -- and some of my earlier renderings were thought to be too much of a separation from the original Icon. Those have been removed. The ones remaining are pretty close to the original. The one altered using the "smudge stick" filter is probably the closest to the original, followed by canvas, rough pastels and posterized.
What exactly did I do? I scanned my personal Icon of Our Lady of Soufanieh into my computer, cleaned it up, and then artistically rendered a cleaned-up Icon template with Photoshop filters. Copyright law forced my hand. I had no choice. The Bible says we must obey secular laws, and that is the only reason why I altered the icons. Now, there is no longer a copyright on either painting, as the artists are dead. The only copyright is on the photograph of the icon, owned by the photographer.
Rick Salbato told me the only photos taken of this version of the icon were done by a German company that is no longer in business, and therefore, according to him, there exists no copyright on the icon. But I wasn't so sure. Technically, the original photographer could claim copyright infringement had I posted the icon unaltered.
In order to make everything legal, I had to alter the photo of the icon to such an extent that the copyright would be transferred to me. The rule-of-thumb is that the photographer can retain copyright on the photo as long as he can recognize the photo as having originated from his camera. I had to change the icon to this extent. I stuggled with maintaining a balance between honoring the icon and honoring international copyright law. The copyright on the icons below is now mine, legally speaking, although I'm not going to enforce my copyright. As far as I'm concerned, these Icons belong to the whole Body of Christ.
And if you still take issue with what I've done, then find the original photographer and have him contact me. The photographer himself will have to force me to remove the icon. The reason I'm being so stubborn is that these are serious, sinful and dangerous times and people are desperately searching for light and hope. I think that even a slightly altered image of Our Lady and Our Lord can provide that. I will not take hope away from people!
I've come up with several renderings of the Icon. Originally, there were between 30 to 50 renderings. These four made the final cut. Feel free to download them and use them as you wish.
They are all 8X10 size, in RGB web color. If you print them, the print colors may not exactly match what you see on the screen because printers run on CMYK color format.
In case you don't know how to download pictures off the Internet, place your mouse over your desired Icon, right-click, and then hit "Save As," or "Save Image As." Doing this will save the picture to your computer.
God Bless!
-- Mary Ann Button, Web Mistress.
Textured with Canvas
Posterized
Rough Pastels
Smudge Stick
