O&O Decorating Ltd.

The StarPhoenix, by Jenn Sharp, Oct. 18, 2012 Restoration of Ukrainian church a labour of love. A former Toronto resident returned home to Saskatoon two years a...go and has spent the last several months helping to restore his community's church in the Riversdale area. Taras Nahachewsky has fond memories of the active parish at St. George Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral when he was growing up. "It was one big family community. We ate together. We prayed together. We did everything together - you painted the church together. If you needed new roofing, you got the community together and you did the roof." Nahachewsky moved home two years ago after 19 years in Toronto. His summer was spent restoring the church and the original paintings within it that were cracked and damaged. Nahachewsky began the restoration project in July, regluing broken plaster, smoothing the walls and copying the original artist's stencils. The community has stepped up and is helping out as well. The parish, which has been a pillar of the Ukrainian Catholic community and a vital part of Saskatoon since 1912, held a 100-year anniversary celebration Oct. 5 to 7. Construction of the cathedral began in 1939 and was completed in 1943. A workforce of parish volunteers began construction with shovels and wheelbarrows. Parish membership at that time was 80 people and 200 children. "There's a lot of Saskatonians - a lot of their blood, sweat and tears went into this place," says Nah-achewsky. The location - at 214 Avenue M South - was then the outskirts of town but the heart of the Ukrainian community. Artist Theodore Baran is credited for painting up to 70 churches in Canada. A parish member of St. George, Baran began painting the sanctuary in 1950 in a style befitting the Byzantine architecture. Many more icons, murals and ornamentation would follow throughout the 1950s. Nahachewsky is trying to remain true to Baran's original work. It's a difficult task since Baran hand mixed his paints "There's so much art in the painting it was too difficult to repair easily so it was left. There's so much stencilling and iconography there that the average person doesn't know how to repair it." Nahachewsky is trying not to change the colours or alter Baran's pattern. But it's a challenge because when Baran ran out of a colour, he hand mixed another, meaning the colours don't match - part of the artist's distinctive style. Many of the paintings are dated according to when parishioners donated money for their creation. Accordingly, the paint colours used throughout the 1950s, varies widely. "So here I am trying to match the off-white, which has yellowed over the years. I'm having fun but I'm not trying to custom match paints wall to wall. I'm just picking as close as I can to an average and continuing," he says. A self-described "jack of all trades" Nahachewsky has been painting for 20 years along with extensive restoration work for the fire and flood industry. Thanks to his experience in everything from drywall to plaster, he was well suited for the challenging restoration and cleaning project at the cathedral. "I wasn't afraid of the project," he laughs. "There's a lot of soot on the ceilings, there was a few dust storms in Saskatchewan that blew through. The walls are dirty. Nobody washed them - it's 26 feet to the ceiling and there's still the dome above that. I'm assuming another 20 feet." The name of his company, O & O Decorating Ltd., hearkens back to Saskatoon's early Ukrainian community. The O & O Drive In was a little restaurant on the corner of 20th Street and Avenue L. St. George's owns the parking lot on which the restaurant was built. Nahachews-ky's father owned the O & O. "He fed the Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians alike. It was a little drive through burger joint with perogies and Borscht on the side if you wanted it." Nahachewsky remembers O & O's last day of business on Christmas Eve, 1993. He and his fiancée worked that day and closed the restaurant. His father died the following year. "And we got married (in Toronto) and the community moves on. And here we are, back 20 years later."

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