Michele Antonio Ziccheddu and Emanuela Giordano, husband and wife, also share the same mission in life: the art of writing sacred icons. In Ussana, where they have opened a laboratory and school of Christian iconography, they divide the work between the works requested by private individuals and teaching the ever-increasing number of students who see in them a model of reference, an example of life "consecrated" to iconography. They met thanks to their common love for iconography and when they decided to get married, it became their lifestyle and not just a job. So it is a choice that involves them entirely. Theirs is an existence immersed in an atmosphere of prayer and silence, and this, for those who feel called to walk the path of the icon, is a fact which cannot be ignored. An icon cannot be written in the midst of noise and confusion, an environment is needed that helps to enter a deeper spiritual dimension, this also implies choices consistent with a more withdrawn life.
The ascetic dimension that they experience in the laboratory while writing the icon, they continue to experience even outside, at home, in the family, among people, because iconography is not something that is done but something that is lived.
For this reason, their school not only teaches Christian art, but is a real school of prayer. In a civilization of images like ours, Christians should regain possession of the right visual language and be educated to look at images that help raise the spirit to God. This is one of the reasons that prompted them to found, in 2014, after years of itinerant courses, a school, with the aim of offering a training course in Christian iconography that was continuous, progressive and complete both from a theoretical and a practical point of view. The Santu Jacu Academy is a Christian educational reality that combines the laboratory experience with the didactic one.
"Above all, we are interested in the spiritual journey of our students and not just artistic progress, aware that these two aspects must always coexist."