3/18/2010
Local artist restores Star of the Sea's stations
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| Local artist restores Star of the Sea’s stations |
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Ed Langlois
When Greg Lewis climbed a ladder to work on figures representing the last hours of Jesus' life, he could not help but pray. The Beaverton artist was asked to restore the large historic stations of the cross at St. Mary, Star of the Sea Church in Astoria. After a year of patching, reinforcing and repainting, the 14 three-dimensional scenes have come alive again. The faithful are using them this Lent to remember the saving mystery of the Passion.
Likely made in the 1890s, the stations were hung in the Astoria Church when it was dedicated in 1915. They had deteriorated and faded over the years. Parts were flaking off in large pieces.
Lewis says many Catholic communities in Oregon a century or more ago purchased plaster statues because of costs. The Astoria stations come from molds made in Italy that were sent to the United States, likely New York or Chicago. Lewis has identified similar stations made in 1873 for a church in San Antonio, Texas.
"People here couldn't afford hand-carved marble from Italy," says Lewis, 63. "But this is not kitsch. It was artfully done."
Making the 90-mile trek to Astoria two or three days per week, Lewis used an epoxy plaster to rebuild the images and repaint them as they were. Parishioners did not want a reinterpretation; they wanted a link back to the founding of their community.
"We take our history seriously," says Marcie Ewald, who led the restoration drive, which was paid for by the altar society.
Worshipers have been praying at the stations each Friday of Lent during a gathering that includes a simple supper. The stations are dominant images here, three or four feet tall in a modest church.
In Astoria, Lewis has also overseen renovation of a long-stored statue of the Sacred Heart and an outdoor statue of Mary.
Lewis, who teaches art at Concordia University in Portland, has created original art for many Catholic institutions in Oregon.
He and his studio partners have created panels of the stations for Holy Trinity Church in Beaverton, stained glass for St. Philip Benizi Church in Redland, a holy oil holder for Sacred Heart Church in Newport and many projects for Providence Health and Services, from Hood River to Newberg. He restored a historic altar at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Jordan.
The son of an ad agency art director, Lewis has been an artist for 36 years, beginning work while in the Army in Germany.
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