Our Teachers: Marek Czarnecki

Marek Czarnecki is a long-time student of Pokrovsky and a major component of our teaching team. As an iconographer, artist and community scholar, he owns and operates a liturgical arts studio, Seraphic Restorations, in Meriden, CT. Gifted writer and teacher of icon-painting, Czarnecki authored the instruction manual for the Six Days of Creation courses, Technique and Teaching of Ksenia Pokrovskaya.

Among the honors he has received is the National Council for Polish Culture’s Jan de Rosen Artistic Achievement Award. In 2000, he was awarded the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Award, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, to continue study under Pokrovsky. Twice he has been awarded the Connecticut Commission on the Arts Painting Fellowship.

In addition to his work in church restoration and his icon commissions, Czarnecki serves as a community scholar for the Polish immigrant community resettled in the United States. He was featured as a narrator in the public television documentary award "Polish Life in Our Valley," which won the 2004 PBS Best Documentary Award. He was awarded the 2005 Polish American Historical Association’s Creative Arts Award. Czarnecki has lectured on sacramental art in American immigrant parishes at the national convention of the National Folklore Society in Rochester, NY.

Czarnecki’s icons can be found in the homes and chapels of individuals, as well as churches across the country, including the Franciscan University of Steubenville, and the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield, IL. His icon painting has been featured in numerous exhibits, videos and articles, including the New York Times and The Saint Anthony Messenger.