By A.M. Kelley
Catholic Herald
St. Anthony's gathering space gets special face-lift
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Colleen E. Anderson paints a design on the ceiling of the gathering space at St. Anthony Church in Superior. She and her sister Amanda Tuura voluntered to spruce up the space. (Catholic Herald photo by A.M. Kelley) |
SUPERIOR -- It took Michelangelo four years to paint the Sistine Chapel. Amanda Tuura and Colleen E. Anderson will complete their ceiling job in considerably less time.
The two sisters volunteered to paint the ceiling of the gathering space of St. Anthony Church this month. And while lacking the narrative of Michelangelo's masterpiece, their assignment will add color, flourish and style to this Superior church thanks to Tuura's imagination.
It all started because the area around the skylight in the room leaked air. Someone covered it with plastic and over time this patchwork marred the ceiling's paint. Tuura said that she would touch it up. One thing led to another. Before long she and her sister were more than 40 hours into painting a 12-pointed star and decorative scroll around the room encircling the skylight.
At first Tuura and Anderson had access to a fellow parishioner's scaffold. But when it got buried during the Dec. 1 snowstorm they resorted to ladders, which slowed the work. As of Dec. 3 the women estimated that they had at least 15 hours of work left.
When the geometric pattern is completed, they will paint some words from Scripture in the circular space around the skylight. Either, "Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise" (Psalm 100:4) or "Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord."
Fr. Dean Buttrick, pastor of St. Anthony, is pleased with this bit of renaissance.
"We're very happy with the pattern and design," he said. "It truly adds to the gathering space and accents the colors of the whole church."
The design is Tuura's creation. She took art history courses at the University of Wisconsin at Superior and also spent 3 months in Florence, Italy studying drawing. In January she'll return to Michelangelo's stomping grounds, this time to learn Italian.
Anderson said her whole family is artistic and her father owns Northern Birch Works just a few miles out of Superior on Hwy. 13 toward Amnicon Falls.
For their day jobs, Tuura sells life and health insurance for Holden Insurance Agency in Superior and Anderson is a homemaker.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2007