Skilled in the full range of styles of religious art, classical to the medieval to modern, master wood carver Dimitrios Klitsas produces assured religious wood carvings for traditional ecclesiastical settings. Producing wood sculptures for church furniture and for the architectural elements that form part of the liturgical space requires careful attention to the forms and conventions established by long practice. Dimitrios has produced new work, historic restorations and the work required for graceful structural alterations for many faith traditions.
This Bishop's throne was carved in basswood for an Orthodox Church in western Massachusetts. Dimitrios built the piece himself, to long-established traditional dimensions. Every detail of the throne carries a symbolic significance. The painted icons on canvas were added afterwards by a qualified iconographer.
The pulpit was carved in basswood for an Orthodox Church in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Dimitrios built the piece himself, to dimensions established and adhered to in every church. There is an established reference work available providing specifications for liturgical cabinetmakers. The icons were painted on canvas by a qualified iconographer, mounted...
The basswood crucifix is 5 feet tall, mounted on a cherry cross built by John Carlo Woodworking of Westfield, Massachusetts. Dimitrios glued up the basswood blanks himself in order to be sure that the wood would support the carving that he planned. This work was created for a Roman Catholic...
This traditional Greek Orthodox chantor's stand features cabinets and a two-sided rotating top in oak and basswood. This is a piece of liturgical furniture built to display and store books during service. Built and carved by Dimitrios and dedicated to his parents, this piece was donated to St. Luke’s Greek...
Dimitrios furnished carvings for both sides of these massive oak doors in a Roman Catholic monastery in Petersham, Massachusetts. St. Benedict is depicted, as are the four Evangelists and numerous other significant Catholic Church symbols. The door was built out of quartersawn red oak by Nine Points Woodworking of Worcester,...
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Dimitrios carved this Virgin Mary in quartersawn red oak for a Roman Catholic monastery in Petersham, Massachusetts. Although a Benedictine monastery, they wanted the work to be in the Byzantine style, specifically a copy of a marble in Constantinople. The bas relief was mounted and displayed in a frame built...
This small, portable icon stand is carved out of basswood and bears a motif of grapes (backside) and wheat, symbolizing the bread and the wine, and the Greek letters for Christ. For a Greek Orthodox Church.
These two tall deacon's chair rails were created for a Lutheran Church in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts out of mahogany. The decoration is delicate ivy plants, surmounted by the letters for “the Alpha and the Omega”, meaning the Christ.
This Byzantine canopy is decorated with grape leaves and grapes, representing the church, in Orthodox iconography. It is carved out of red oak, instead of the usual basswood.
This small hexagonal Gothic canopy hangs over the baptismal font of a St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, in Southbridge, Massachusetts. It is carved out of oak and given a dark finish.
A Chicago architect requested this round baptismal font frame as a commission for a Protestant Church. The round frame was milled out of walnut by a Chicago area woodworker and shipped to Dimitrios. The architect provided a sketch on a water theme, including fish, wetlands and waves, which Dimitrios carved...
This psaltery was produced out of oak and decorated with rosettes and similar architectural ornament, including a two headed eagle. For St. George's Roman Catholic Church in Manchester, New Hampshire.
