Photo of the day: Iconographer paints Greek Orthodox church’s dome

Iconographer Dionysios Bouloubassis paints the dome of the Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Holladay on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022. The inside of the church’s nave is being renovated.

Laura Seitz, Deseret Information

The inside of Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Holladay has been getting a makeover through the previous couple of weeks due to iconographer Dionysios Bouloubassis.

A 12 months in the past, Father Patrick O’Rourke, who's Irish by ancestry and Greek Orthodox by conversion, realized the church had the funds for brand spanking new artwork within the dome. There was a mosaic on the dome 20 years in the past, however the items had been falling and the mosaic needed to be eliminated.

Father O’Rourke contacted Bouloubassis, who was born in Baltimore and studied in Greece after shifting there as a baby. Bouloubassis moved again to Baltimore in 2016 when Greece’s economic system took a dive.

Bouloubassis created the photographs for the dome in his studio, shipped them to Utah after which hand painted the background and particulars utilizing scaffolding to achieve the 70-foot-high dome.

Bouloubassis makes use of the Macedonian model of iconography the place the saints’ faces are usually spherical and painted with rosy colours.