The Mary Statue is Back
03/02/09 12:40 PM
Rededication and Blessing of the Statue of
St. Mary and the Child, Jesus
Wednesday, March 25, 6 PM High Mass
The Feast of the Annunciation
At long last, the statue of Our Lady will be back in the Church in time for Easter! The statue with its original cornice, niche ‘cap’ with fleur de lis on top will be blessed on the Feast of the Annunciation, a Prayer Book Holy Day, March 25.
We want to extend our thanks and deepest appreciation to Mr. Richard McCoy of the restoration department of the Indiana Museum of Art for his painstaking and delicate work in getting the statue of Mary ‘back in one piece.’
The statue, unbeknownst to anyone, was hollow and cracked in half across the torso. Don Harris, who is also an art student at IUPUI, assisted Richard in this project and together they worked to ‘put Mary back together again.’ Sister Ellen Carney, an iconographer, has been working with them and doing touch-up painting on Mary’s gown, etc, to conceal the area where the restoration work, glues, adhesives and inside armatures. This was a very intricate process.
Richard has documented his restoration work through many digital photographs (‘before, during and after’) so that All Saints will have a complete history/report of the work that was done on the statue so that this valuable information will be placed in our files and archives.
The expectation is that Richard and his wife and children will be able to attend the rededication Mass; there is a possibility that an Indianapolis Star reporter may be present to use this event as a future news article and photo-op.
Wednesday, March 25, 6 PM High Mass
The Feast of the Annunciation
At long last, the statue of Our Lady will be back in the Church in time for Easter! The statue with its original cornice, niche ‘cap’ with fleur de lis on top will be blessed on the Feast of the Annunciation, a Prayer Book Holy Day, March 25.
We want to extend our thanks and deepest appreciation to Mr. Richard McCoy of the restoration department of the Indiana Museum of Art for his painstaking and delicate work in getting the statue of Mary ‘back in one piece.’
The statue, unbeknownst to anyone, was hollow and cracked in half across the torso. Don Harris, who is also an art student at IUPUI, assisted Richard in this project and together they worked to ‘put Mary back together again.’ Sister Ellen Carney, an iconographer, has been working with them and doing touch-up painting on Mary’s gown, etc, to conceal the area where the restoration work, glues, adhesives and inside armatures. This was a very intricate process.
Richard has documented his restoration work through many digital photographs (‘before, during and after’) so that All Saints will have a complete history/report of the work that was done on the statue so that this valuable information will be placed in our files and archives.
The expectation is that Richard and his wife and children will be able to attend the rededication Mass; there is a possibility that an Indianapolis Star reporter may be present to use this event as a future news article and photo-op.