Mosaics by AthoPetra

Tom’s sons grew up surrounded by sketchbooks, canvas, easels, wood panels, gesso, brushes, paint, glues, gold leaf and splattered colors everywhere. From this they found their own artistic expression using the tools of mosaicists. Their colors are the brilliant glass hues forged in the furnaces of Venice as well as the earth-colored stone found in the riverbeds at the foothills of the Alps and the regions of Umbro and Sienna. From this and all of the other inspirations and experiences in their lives, AthoPetra was Blessed and born.

Fathers Tarsizios and Athanasios also had formal art training from their early elementary school years. They attended the Hellenic Children’s Art Museum of Athens weekly and received many awards. One of their pieces is in a permanent exhibit in the International Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Through their high school years, they apprenticed with their dad in the United States in the various churches he was commissioned to paint.

Upon high school graduation, with the Blessing of their lifelong Spiritual Father and Elder, Archimandrite Dionysios, it was natural for them to attend the Mosaic School of Friuli, Italy, foremost in the world. Their professors were delighted to have the sons of a Byzantine Iconographer in their school and town, known as “The City of Art and Re-birthplace of Mosaic”. Works from the scholars of The Mosaic School of Friuli are featured worldwide – from The Dome of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to the Subway Station of Ground Zero.

While studying at Friuli, they were awarded 1st place for several of their pieces including a competition in honor of the Gyro d’Italia.

The Fathers have taught Mosaic courses at the Greek Cultural Center in Trieste, Italy; Nordal, Norway; in Kitzbühel, Austria; and in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In the course of studying Classical, Byzantine and contemporary mosaics at Friuli, they were accepted to apprentice in the Micromosaic Laboratory of the Vatican; besides Micromosaics, they did restoration work in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The two Fathers also served as consultants at Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies in Washington, DC.

Father Athos (Tom’s 4th son) and Father Joshua, a brother monk, also studied at the Mosaic School of Friuli and have joined AthoPetra both in the studio and on location.

The Fathers are very honored to have works in permanent collections in Greece, Italy, Vatican, Georgia, Norway, Lebanon, Romania and the U.S. They recently installed 5 exterior mosaics for the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George in Shreveport, Louisiana, commissioned in honor of the church’s 100-year anniversary. And more recently, they installed 3 exterior mosaics onto the Chapel of St. Irene at a Palliative Care Center in Bucharest as well as onto the Church of the Holy Archangels in Northern Bucharest.

In addition to creating mosaics at their Monasteries, the Fathers also offer mosaic courses several times throughout the year.