Specializing in plaster work and painting of religious icons, including manger sets, statuary, and fresco.
The following photographs were taken at St. Rose Catholic Church in Lima, NY
Work done by Bonnie Deprez
Located in Avon, NY
585-350-5048
585-350-5048
BEFORE AFTER
Bonnie DePrez carefully paints a Sacred Heart of Jesus statue inside Lima's St. Rose Church Feb. 13. DePrez volunteered to restore the Stations of the Cross at St. Rose and has now moved on to restoring the church's large statues.
Artist makes Lima stations shine
By Mike Latona/Catholic Courier
LIMA -- For many mornings and early afternoons this past year, Bonnie DePrez toiled alone inside St. Rose Church, applying her artistic talent to a historic building that she calls "stunningly beautiful."
The result is a refurbished Stations of the Cross for worshipers to behold this Lenten season. Meanwhile, DePrez said she has deeply cherished the opportunity to be so intimately involved in the telling of Christ's passion.
"I can’t even describe the emotion," DePrez said.
DePrez, 52, is a parishioner of St. Agnes in Avon, where in recent years she has touched up several statues. Her work expanded to St. Rose after that church and St. Agnes formed a cluster in 2010 with St. Paul of the Cross in Honeoye Falls. DePrez noted that her husband, Bob, a member of the cluster’s buildings and grounds committee, first suggested the St. Rose project based on her longtime penchant for artwork -- her specialty is designing Ukrainian eggs -- and her desire to direct that focus toward a church setting.
"I love everything about churches -- the stained glass, everything. I think they’re amazing," DePrez said.
Thus began her work on the Stations of the Cross, which are the originals from St. Rose’s current church that was dedicated in 1873. The plaster stations feature vivid artistry, such as blue-sky backgrounds and deep emotion in the characters’ faces.
"I can’t imagine anything telling the story as well as these do," DePrez said.
However, many years had gone by since the stations had been spruced up, resulting in widespread chipping and faded paint. DePrez touched up her first station last winter as a test run, and after a favorable result began on the remaining 13 with the blessing of Sister Karen Dietz, SSJ, the cluster’s pastoral administrator, and Tom Crego, St. Rose’s business manager.
Planning around her duties as a substitute teacher, DePrez typically attended weekday morning Mass at St. Rose and then sailed into her work, staying until mid-afternoon and playing CDs of classical music to fill the otherwise silent and empty church. Her work involved replastering parts that had deteriorated, removing old paint and applying new colors to the stations, which hang on the church's side walls.
"I had to hand-mix all my paints -- about 50 little paint pots. I tried to stay as much as I could toward what I thought was the original color scheme," she said. That meant frequently walking back and forth in the church, comparing stations for consistency. She also conducted extensive Internet research.
After taking last summer off, DePrez had the St. Rose stations completed by Christmas. She did so at no charge, with the church covering the cost of the materials and a local business donating the stenciled lettering below each station.
"It was an amazing job performed by Bonnie. She put so much time and effort into all the detail," Crego commented.
DePrez chuckled at some of the small mishaps along the way: her initial misgivings at climbing up on a scaffold; uncovering a wasp’s nest attached to one station; being surrounded once by bees that had entered through a hole in the wall; and twisting herself into a variety of positions to access nooks and crannies.
"It was a little nerve-wracking," she said of the process.
Viewing the stations up close for so many hours also proved a deeply spiritual and sometimes troubling experience. Sighing deeply, DePrez acknowledged "how difficult it was for me to paint Station 7 where they were beating Jesus. That just pained me so much."
Also registering strongly were "the expressions on the characters' faces, the anguish I see in Mary losing a son. I couldn’t even imagine. Interestingly enough, with the guards and the Pharisees in the beginning you see such anger and hostility. By the time you get to Station 12 where Jesus dies, they’re not angry, they’re not hostile. They realize something happened; there’s a reverence. And Jesus’ face throughout all the stations -- I can think of only one word and that would be ‘acceptance.’"
St. Rose held a rededication ceremony for the stations in early November, yet DePrez said that being singled out made her uncomfortable.
"None of this is about me," she emphasized, saying her happiness comes from watching people admire the stations, such as one man she observed showing them to his son.
"They stopped by every station and discussed it, and I thought it was so wonderful," she said. "That’s what I want people to do, is come in and find the peace in this church that I find in it."
DePrez has gone on to touch up St. Rose's statues of the Blessed Mother and Sacred Heart of Jesus, and she plans to soon address those of several saints positioned above the stations. Sister Dietz observed that the people of St. Rose take great pride in their church’s appearance, and so "to have the stations and now the statues restored to their former beauty is truly a gift."
Sister Dietz also is pleased to see this contribution from a neighboring parish in the newly formed cluster: "It is great to see the gifts of a member of one community being so freely shared with one of the other communities."
DePrez acknowledged that she hasn't yet gotten around to any artwork at the cluster's third church, St. Paul of the Cross.
"One church at a time," she said, laughing.
- See more at: http://www.catholiccourier.com/regional-life/livingston/features/artist-makes-lima-stations-shine/#sthash.PqugDNJh.dpuf
Artist makes Lima stations shine
By Mike Latona/Catholic Courier
LIMA -- For many mornings and early afternoons this past year, Bonnie DePrez toiled alone inside St. Rose Church, applying her artistic talent to a historic building that she calls "stunningly beautiful."
The result is a refurbished Stations of the Cross for worshipers to behold this Lenten season. Meanwhile, DePrez said she has deeply cherished the opportunity to be so intimately involved in the telling of Christ's passion.
"I can’t even describe the emotion," DePrez said.
DePrez, 52, is a parishioner of St. Agnes in Avon, where in recent years she has touched up several statues. Her work expanded to St. Rose after that church and St. Agnes formed a cluster in 2010 with St. Paul of the Cross in Honeoye Falls. DePrez noted that her husband, Bob, a member of the cluster’s buildings and grounds committee, first suggested the St. Rose project based on her longtime penchant for artwork -- her specialty is designing Ukrainian eggs -- and her desire to direct that focus toward a church setting.
"I love everything about churches -- the stained glass, everything. I think they’re amazing," DePrez said.
Thus began her work on the Stations of the Cross, which are the originals from St. Rose’s current church that was dedicated in 1873. The plaster stations feature vivid artistry, such as blue-sky backgrounds and deep emotion in the characters’ faces.
"I can’t imagine anything telling the story as well as these do," DePrez said.
However, many years had gone by since the stations had been spruced up, resulting in widespread chipping and faded paint. DePrez touched up her first station last winter as a test run, and after a favorable result began on the remaining 13 with the blessing of Sister Karen Dietz, SSJ, the cluster’s pastoral administrator, and Tom Crego, St. Rose’s business manager.
Planning around her duties as a substitute teacher, DePrez typically attended weekday morning Mass at St. Rose and then sailed into her work, staying until mid-afternoon and playing CDs of classical music to fill the otherwise silent and empty church. Her work involved replastering parts that had deteriorated, removing old paint and applying new colors to the stations, which hang on the church's side walls.
"I had to hand-mix all my paints -- about 50 little paint pots. I tried to stay as much as I could toward what I thought was the original color scheme," she said. That meant frequently walking back and forth in the church, comparing stations for consistency. She also conducted extensive Internet research.
After taking last summer off, DePrez had the St. Rose stations completed by Christmas. She did so at no charge, with the church covering the cost of the materials and a local business donating the stenciled lettering below each station.
"It was an amazing job performed by Bonnie. She put so much time and effort into all the detail," Crego commented.
DePrez chuckled at some of the small mishaps along the way: her initial misgivings at climbing up on a scaffold; uncovering a wasp’s nest attached to one station; being surrounded once by bees that had entered through a hole in the wall; and twisting herself into a variety of positions to access nooks and crannies.
"It was a little nerve-wracking," she said of the process.
Viewing the stations up close for so many hours also proved a deeply spiritual and sometimes troubling experience. Sighing deeply, DePrez acknowledged "how difficult it was for me to paint Station 7 where they were beating Jesus. That just pained me so much."
Also registering strongly were "the expressions on the characters' faces, the anguish I see in Mary losing a son. I couldn’t even imagine. Interestingly enough, with the guards and the Pharisees in the beginning you see such anger and hostility. By the time you get to Station 12 where Jesus dies, they’re not angry, they’re not hostile. They realize something happened; there’s a reverence. And Jesus’ face throughout all the stations -- I can think of only one word and that would be ‘acceptance.’"
St. Rose held a rededication ceremony for the stations in early November, yet DePrez said that being singled out made her uncomfortable.
"None of this is about me," she emphasized, saying her happiness comes from watching people admire the stations, such as one man she observed showing them to his son.
"They stopped by every station and discussed it, and I thought it was so wonderful," she said. "That’s what I want people to do, is come in and find the peace in this church that I find in it."
DePrez has gone on to touch up St. Rose's statues of the Blessed Mother and Sacred Heart of Jesus, and she plans to soon address those of several saints positioned above the stations. Sister Dietz observed that the people of St. Rose take great pride in their church’s appearance, and so "to have the stations and now the statues restored to their former beauty is truly a gift."
Sister Dietz also is pleased to see this contribution from a neighboring parish in the newly formed cluster: "It is great to see the gifts of a member of one community being so freely shared with one of the other communities."
DePrez acknowledged that she hasn't yet gotten around to any artwork at the cluster's third church, St. Paul of the Cross.
"One church at a time," she said, laughing.
- See more at: http://www.catholiccourier.com/regional-life/livingston/features/artist-makes-lima-stations-shine/#sthash.PqugDNJh.dpuf