Source: LowellSun.com
Lowell, MA, November 19, 2015
Robert Andrews holds up a drawing of the mosaic icon that is directly above him in the Transfiguration Church in Lowell Sunday. Andrews, known as "America's only true Byzantine mosaic iconographer," completed all the icons at the Greek orthodox church in Lowell. SUN photos / Caley McGuane
Andrews, a native of Dover N.H., and now 90 years old, began work at Transfiguration Church in 1961, collaborating with the Very Rev. John P. Sarantos, then priest of the parish.
In 1961, the interior walls of the church were bare plaster. Today, the walls glimmer with shades of gold, blue and red as a testament to the commitment Andrews and Sarantos gave to a labor-intensive project they knew would take years to complete.
Andrews recently spoke at the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, and many of those who attended that presentation were in Lowell on Sunday to see his work first hand.
Close-up detail of the mosaic work that Robert Andrews has done at Transfiguration Church in Lowell. See video at lowellsun.com.
Close-up detail of the mosaic work that Robert Andrews has done at Transfiguration Church in Lowell.
Sarantos first contacted Andrews after returning from a trip to Venice. The priest was inspired by the icons of the Basilica of St. Mark, the Roman Catholic cathedral of Venice built in the Byzantine style. Sarantos sought to bring the feel of that basilica to his Orthodox church.
"We planned long range," Andrews said. "We asked where do we want to be in 10 years? In 20 years? We planned out many steps."
He completed work on the first icon -- of the Blessed Mother -- in 1963 at a cost of $3,400. As he completed icons, they were placed first in the apse, the area behind the altar, and then spread outwards reaching the narthex and upwards reaching the dome.
Andrews completed the dome of the church with the help of his youngest son, who also helped with the 9-story dome of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in San Francisco.
Andrews said he and his son often found themselves on scaffolding and twisting themselves into positions Michelangelo might have used painting the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
Preparing an icon is like "a major puzzle," Andrews said. He works with a palette of 5,000 colors.
"This is where it begins," he said, holding up a thumb-sized tile.
Robert Andrews discusses his work and his process Sunday night at Transfiguration Greek orthodox church in Lowell. SUN/Caley McGuane
"You can't have any mistakes in this puzzle," he cautioned.
He begins by preparing a "cartoon," a drawing on paper of the proposed design. He sends his drawings and pages of detailed instructions to a studio in Italy that specializes in creating the small glass tiles.
He receives crates back from Italy and numbered sections of the icon are carefully laid out on the floor. If he finds something wrong, he must fix it quickly when the cement used to assemble it is still soft. "I can't let it harden," he said.
Andrews created his first icon, a drawing of St. John the Baptist, when he was 12.
The Byzantine mosaic work of master iconographer Robert Andews adorns much of " has completed all the icons at the Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Lowell. SUN/Caley McGuane
The Byzantine mosaic work of master iconographer Robert Andews adorns much of " has completed all the icons at the Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Lowell. SUN/Caley McGuane Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/news/ci_29138523/tales-tiles-live-his-lowell-church-mosaic-masterpieces#ixzz3s2mR9dEK
Donations from parishioners funded all the work at Transfiguration Church. As a result of the donations, and their accompanying dedications, the icons here have an unusually high number of female saints.
Trying to estimate the cost of the project over 50 years would be difficult and perhaps misleading. For the first decades, the studio in Italy was paid in lira. The dollar's exchange rate with the lira was quite favorable. But introducing the euro changed that calculation. Also, inflation over the decades would have to be calculated.
