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

The interior of Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Holladay has been getting a makeover during the past couple of weeks thanks to iconographer Dionysios Bouloubassis. 

A year ago, Father Patrick O’Rourke, who is Irish by ancestry and Greek Orthodox by conversion, realized the church had the funds for new art in the dome. There was a mosaic on the dome 20 years ago, but the pieces were falling and the mosaic had to be removed.

Father O’Rourke contacted Bouloubassis, who was born in Baltimore and studied in Greece after moving there as a child. Bouloubassis moved back to Baltimore in 2016 when Greece’s economy took a dive.

Bouloubassis created the images for the dome in his studio, shipped them to Utah and then hand painted the background and details using scaffolding to reach the 70-foot-high dome.

Bouloubassis uses the Macedonian style of iconography where the saints’ faces tend to be round and painted with rosy colors.

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