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January 7, 2022BY TANYA CONNOR
THE CATHOLIC FREE PRESSWORCESTER – Jesus, Mary and Joseph are focused on each other in a painting that graces Our Lady of Lourdes Church. The artist, Elio Sonsini, who lives in the parish neighborhood, claims it’s his only religious painting.
But when he shows some of his other paintings and explains how he’s trying to communicate the importance of morality, justice and human dignity, his work comes across as a spiritual endeavor. He says the messages he tries to impart through his art are themes that religions preach.
The painting he gave to Our Lady of Lourdes Parish shows a beautiful family where everybody loves each other, he says.
“It’s very calm and peaceful, the way that the family should be,” he says. “They teach the kid what to do … to have good values.”
While visiting a church in Florida with his cousin Raymond DiGregorio and friend Charles Genovesi some time ago, Mr. Sonsini was impressed with a sculpture of the Holy Family and wanted to make a painting like it.
“Charlie said, ‘Why don’t you do a religious painting?’” Mr. Sonsini recalls. He made this one, modeled on the sculpture, adding his own touches. Joseph looks like a carpenter from Mr. Sonsini’s native Italy who teaches his trade to the younger generation, he explains.
“It was a … really emotional feeling” making this painting, Mr. Sonsini says. He uses that emotion to paint so viewers will experience a strong feeling from his artwork.
“My eye caught this painting” in Mr. Sonsini’s home studio, says Father Brian P. O’Toole, Our Lady of Lourdes’ pastor. He thought the painting would be nice in the church.
“We were having dinner together and he mentioned that he would like to donate that to the church,” Father O’Toole recalls. “And I said, ‘Absolutely! You’re an answer to a prayer!’”
Opposite the Holy Family painting, which now hangs in the church, is one of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette done by another local artist, Thomas Woods, now deceased. That painting was already there when Father O’Toole arrived.
Mr. Sonsini, 77, isn’t a member of Our Lady of Lourdes yet. But he says he attends Lord’s Day and holy day Masses there with Mr. Genovesi, 97, since they live nearby.
Brought up Catholic in Italy, Mr. Sonsini was disturbed by things that happened with the Church and priests.
“I have God inside, but I don’t like … people not respecting God,” he says. “They say one thing and do another.” This didn’t stop him from practicing his faith, however, he says.
He says he tries to live right, reflecting before he does something. He describes himself as trying to inspire people to pass on good things to others like Jesus did, and giving of himself to others like Jesus gave his body and blood in the Eucharist.
In 1989 he began devoting more time to taking care of his mother, as her health was failing, he says. He opened a private art school and continued his commercial art and personal painting at home until his mother died in 2002 at the age of 99. After her death, he moved from Italy to Sturbridge to take care of his cousin, Mr. DiGregorio, now also deceased, and continued painting.
Mr. Sonsini says he considers himself a successful artist even if he isn’t world-famous.
But he is known, according to a booklet with reproductions of some of his paintings. The biography in it tells of awards he won in Italy and the United States, and of his work being reviewed by famous art critics and displayed in exhibitions and in public and private collections. His first exhibition in the United States was in 2006, at the Italian American Cultural Center of Our Lady of Mount Carmel-St. Ann Church, he says.
Mr. Sonsini got his art degree from Liceo Artistico Statale in Pescara, Italy, and graduated from the Tyler School of Fine Art in Philadelphia with a specialization in watercolors, the biography says.
He says he wants to make others happy through his artwork, promoting the good behavior that brings happiness. He also gives free art and Italian language lessons at the Worcester Senior Center.
Mr. Sonsini says he wants to portray human beings as they should be – humble, honest, compassionate, helping each other. In his studio there are paintings of what he calls the best type of people – simple folks who work with their hands and show hospitality to strangers.
In contrast are his depictions of people he “petrified,” turning them into stone, painting them to look like robots. Absorbed in their pleasures and cell phones, they’ve isolated themselves, not heeding the suffering of others, refusing the hospitality of the poor and failing to communicate personally with other human beings.
Mr. Sonsini says he hopes to resume exhibitions after the pandemic. He keeps, sells or donates his paintings, wanting them to go to people who appreciate the emotion in them. “It’s part of my character that they get” in the paintings, he says.
