Paul Herrera touches up gold leaf on a Father Edward Catich slate at Regina Catholic Education Center in Iowa City.
For The Catholic Messenger
IOWA CITY — Exterior slates by the late Father Edward Catich, a world-renowned artist and calligrapher, got spruced up recently at Regina Catholic Education Center.
Paul Herrera, a student and protégé of the priest, along with Jeff Young of Young Art & Sign in Davenport refurbished the slates.
“The job involved the angel inscriptions on the outside wall of the chapel and the Blessed Mother image on the wall of the high school,” Herrera said.
The slate panels are part of the original construction dating back to 1959. Father Catich designed and cut the images with help from his apprentices at that time. “They would likely have been Frank Kickel and Lloyd Altera,” Herrera said. “Father would only entrust that work to people he had personally trained.”
“Jeff and I touched up the gold leaf and repainted a few areas that had experienced some effects of weather over the years. The hand-cut images are as crisp as ever but Midwestern heat and icy winters take their toll on the edges of the stones if they are not sealed properly. We did what we could to mitigate any further weathering of the stone, then made sure that the surface and edges were sealed as the final step in the process.”
